Gut feeling

It was 5 pm when Jason arrived in front of the Fler-mansion and he had to call Greg for assistance as he couldn't lift the beast cage alone.

Artemis was curled up on Jason's shoulder and it looked like a fluffy ball was placed there. Greg arrived a few minutes later, wondering as to why he had to come outside before he spotted a large cage next to Jason, who waved at him.

He noticed the scaled wolf inside the cage, but somehow this confused him even more.

"Hey Jason, what are you doing here with this scaled wolf??"

Jason, who had predicted Greg´s confusion, smiled mischievously and replied,

"Hey Greg, to be honest, I´m not doing anything special with this scaled wolf. I only want to sell it to your parents, nothing else. Can you please help me bring the cage inside without killing the wolf?"

Greg was rather dense and liked to fight more than brooding over something.

As such, he didn't like to think too complicatedly and simply nodded.

"I can help you get the cage inside, no problem."

Lifting the cage as if it weighed just like a feather, Greg walked inside and left Jason who sighed and followed suit.

Jason saw himself again in the living room like the day before but now there were two cages. One cage had the sleeping scaled wolf inside while the other cage was at least five meters high and 8 meters in width and length.

Inside this gigantic cage was a large green eagle with a height of around 3 meters.

Based on its mana core, Jason noticed that the mana was a good amount larger than Malia's, and after activating his Mana eyes, he noticed a green color he had seen once before. Jason was also able to spot a completed mana core with a liquefied mana drop inside the core.

`Is that a magical beast?`

The cage the eagle was inside was empowered by mana stones and Jason noticed mana flowing through the whole cage, reinforcing its strength and toughness.

After Jason was done admiring the eagle his eyes flitted to the couch where he noticed two people with strong but familiar mana cores.

Seeing Greg´s parents, Jason immediately bowed slightly before saying

"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Fler, nice meeting you again." He tried to sound cheerful while looking at them.

Greg´s parents couldn't see the slightest flicker of sadness or frustration within Jason's golden shining eyes which surprised them a little, as they told Malia to relay their message word for word.

Gabriella, Greg´s mother signaled him to sit down before greeting him with a "Hello, Jason."

A small glass table was placed in front of the massive couch. While Malia and Greg sat at the side, Jason was sitting right in front of the Fler couple, looking around awkwardly, while the Fler´s looked at Jason intently.

Trying to hide his nervousness, Jason placed Artemis on his lap where she continued to nap.

Mrs. Fler opened her mouth first.

"Jason, I think you have already figured out why we called you here, haven't you?"

She smiled apologetically at him, but somehow there was something else in her eyes that was only noticed by him and Mr. Fler who knew about her feelings.

`Is she sad or angry?` Jason wondered, trying to gauge her expressions.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fler, feel free to assume that I bought the five-star wild beast corpses. Following that scenario, this implies that I wanted to trick everyone here to get into a prosperous school in an A-grade city, right?" Jason guessed.

He wasn't overly sad that they didn't believe him effortlessly as even he knew that it would be weird for him to kill five-star wild beasts so easily without getting help. It was natural for them to think that Jason had most likely bought these carcasses but Jason was still a little disappointed.

`Why did the Fler's even bother to give me a mission that is impossible for me to complete in their opinion?`

Nevertheless, the chances to get admitted to a school within an A-grade city just gave too many benefits, to make anyone want to use unfair means to fulfill the task. Jason could faintly understand their suspicion but he still had some hope and thought of showing his combat prowess in a last ditch effort to impress them.

Gabriella was astounded by Jason´s calmness which gave him some extra points but she was still unsure of how she should handle this situation. Her thoughts were clouded with several doubts. 

'Did he really kill them, even though he doesn't possess any great martial art techniques or a remarkable mana core rank? And his soulbond is also extremely weak.`

"That's true. I don't believe a 4th Novice rank can kill a five-star wild beast in such clean cuts, even if you assassinated them. That should not be possible without receiving professional training and please don't try to feed me lies of how your two-star wild beast soulbond was such great support that you were able to hunt them. That would make you even less credible in my eyes."

Jason was still calm but he thought that Mrs. Fler was a little bit prejudiced... 'If someone with professional training could do something like that, why shouldn't he be able to?

And what's wrong with my soulbond?'

Furrowing his brows, Jason tried to force himself to stay calm though he had subconsciously curled his fists. Gabriella noticed that her provocation made him angry which had been her actual plan all along.

It wasn't like she had anything against Jason, but she had to find out who he was and if he was worth the effort before she could do anything.

She still remembered the time when Greg's classmates befriended him only due to their parents' order which had caused huge damage to Greg's mental health.

As a mother, she didn't want her son to feel something like that ever again so she had to be strict and somewhat evil.

Sensing the sadness in her eyes, Jason remembered Malia's concern and his gaze wandered to Greg.

Tilting his head slightly, as if he was trying to discern something, Jason looked at Greg who looked back at him with question marks in his eyes.

Returning his gaze to Mrs. Fler, he said with all the confidence he could muster.

"I don't think I need to explain myself, do I?

If you don't believe me, why was there even such a task to begin with?

I don't need anyone´s charity and I don't even want anyone to think that the things I did at the soul-awakening were sophisticated plans.

Nobody here owes me a favor and I did these things of my own accord.

If you don't want me to follow you to Cyro-city just say so and don't try to find other excuses.

I killed these five-star wild beats with the help of my soulbond and I don't really care about the opinions of others about this matter." 

Ending his slightly furious monologue, Jason looked into Mrs. Fler's eyes which were still quite difficult for him to read but he couldn't hold himself back anymore.

He changed the subject quickly before anyone could say anything.

"I also came here for some business.

Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Fler have already seen the beast cage Greg brought in.

Today I was hunting inside the one-star plains wild zone and I found this two-star wild beast scaled wolf.

I think many nobles, newly rich´s or merchants with weak soul energy would be interested in it."

Jason was still somewhat angry, but at least for business sake, he had to show a calm face and hence he forced a smile.

"Why should we be interested in a wild rank beast?"

Mr. Fler, who had been quiet for the entire time since his arrival, interjected. It was time for Jason to say something dumb to prevent his secret from getting exposed.

"My gut feeling says this beast´s potential is good." Jason tried to put on an innocent expression, but it worked only partly as everyone looked at him with odd expressions.

"Jason, are you fine? You don't look good," Greg asked worriedly.

He began to sweat slightly but he remained calm and waited for his parents to say something.

Unbeknownst to Jason, Mrs. Fler had gestured to Malia to look at the cage. Following her mother's orders, she was already in front of it with her quantum bracelet projecting a realistically scaled wolf next to the sleeping one with all of its characteristics written down in detail.

She exclaimed excitedly,

"This scaled wolf is larger than normal ones and its scales are shining brightly. They are definitely tougher than the ones of the normally scaled wolves."

However, she continued in a slightly dejected tone

"But other than that I can't see anything special... I don't think that this scaled wolf can reach the awakened rank."

Mr. Fler opened his mouth again.

"Without reaching the awakened rank, at the least, it's almost useless to catch this scaled wolf even if it's somewhat stronger than its brethren. Can you prove your gut feeling is correct? There is no way we can tell our clients that our gut feeling is enough reason for them to believe that a certain beast's potential is good."

Jason felt somewhat annoyed...why should he explain everything?

He was about to get really angry when he noticed Mrs. Fler's eyes and hesitated for a moment.

'Why is she looking at me like that, when she was the one provoking me? She is surely not concerned about me… '

"Why don't you take a test about its potential with the basic equipment you have here? Greg told me that we have everything here that one would need to conduct some simple tests about a beast's potential. It would be easier for everyone if we finish it that way, wouldn't it?"

The Fler couple heard Jason´s reasoning and glared at Greg who looked at his parents innocently.

`Our son betrayed us????`

It was getting more and more difficult for them to keep up with their show and both sighed before nodding their head.

They suddenly changed their attitude by almost 180 degrees and Gabriella Fler smiled at Jason apologetically.

"We can do that for sure… and sorry for provoking you.. I hope you didn't take it to your heart"