Ready to rumble

Almost two weeks had passed already and only two days were left from his initial time limit of 3 weeks in order to kill five five-star wild beasts or one awakened beast to fulfill Greg's family's condition.

Nothing special occurred during the last two weeks but most important was that Jason and Artemis' strength increased quite a lot.

To Jason's great surprise, Artemis broke her limit and entered the rank of a two-star wild beast.

The mana she digested every day strengthened her physique, blood, and mana core.

It was only a matter of time until she would reach her racial limit, or was there no limit, to begin with?

He asked himself whether Artemis was able to evolve because it was possible for her to break through her limit owing to her mutation!

Or was that something every beast could do with enough mana? But then...Why would his eyes tell him something about the potential of beasts?

Was Artemis able to break through her shackles because of her superior digestion ability or because of the high amount of mana?

Jason didn't know and he couldn't find an answer because he was also unable to gauge Artemis' potential.

The mutation Jason thought of was a complex one that involved some sort of gluttony and a stomach that could digest huge amounts of mana.

But how could Jason be sure of that, as he had never heard of such a mutation before?

Furthermore, he wasn't even sure if Artemis could eat something else?

She had yet to eat something else other than the cores of wild beasts and mana stones.

Her plumage shimmered more with each passing day and the amount of mana within her blood increased steadily.

Artemis grew in size a little and now had a wingspan of more than a meter while her length was around 35 centimeters but most important was the fact that even her talons were strengthened.

Her fortified talons were now sharp and powerful enough to pierce through the scales of the scaled wolf without enhancing them with mana.

Jason however was still at the 3rd Novice rank while his mastery over the modified Azure feisty Ape technique reached the familiar mastery.

His combat prowess soared and he learned how to use his mana more efficiently.

He was even able to eradicate a small group of three-star wild beasts and lone four-star wild beasts with the help of Artemis.

But that wasn't everything as Jason used the Heaven's Hell technique three times a day instead of one time a day which was pretty nice to increase his soul energy, purify and stabilize it.

Due to the natural breakthrough of Artemis, Jason received more shared soul energy, mana, and his physique increased.

Jason was happy that Artemis grew stronger and his mana core reached the size of a normal 5th Novice rank while his physique reached the 4th Novice rank standard.

However, the soul energy he needed to keep Artemis by his side or rather inside his soul world increased from the initial 1 unit to 2.

Because of Jason's fast soul energy replenishment rate and his utilization of the Heaven's Hell technique thrice a day, which was painful like nothing else he had ever felt, his soul energy reached almost the required amount of two.

It was still enough to take a hold of Artemis but once she reached the three-star wild beast rank, Jason would be in trouble as the soul energy requirement would be around 4.

But there wasn't anything he could do about it.

He had no other choice but to work hard and practice the Heaven's Hell technique as often as possible.

With his increased or rather doubled soul energy amount from one to two, each practice would increase his soul energy double the amount than two weeks before.

And this would only continue on his path.

As long as his soul energy reached four units, the Heaven's Hell technique´s efficiency would result in a doubled increase compared to the time he only had a soul energy of 2 units and a quadruple increase to the initial soul energy of one as everything worked exponentially.

Jason discovered something and he would have loved to test the theory he began to develop but for him to try this he would need quite a bit of soul energy.

Today he would hunt pairs of four-star wild beasts and if he could kill two or three of them without sustaining an injury, he would try assassinating five-star wild beasts.

It was dangerous, but what could he do? With enough safety measures and tactics that involved Artemis, he was confident in not dying while fighting against four-star wild beasts.

There was no way for him to hunt an awakened beast as there was a huge difference in combat strength between wild beasts and awakened beasts.

Once a beast reaches the awakened rank the possibility to awaken an ability appears.

While some beasts don't have a single ability, their physical traits increase a lot once they reach the awakened rank.

If he was completely honest, Jason was extremely horrified to fight five-star wild beasts while being at the lower levels of the novice rank.

In the end, he had to face beasts that had at least double his strength and mana.

Jason was confident in his control over mana, martial art proficiency, intelligence, and ability to marginally foretell his opponent's incoming attack and deflect it.

Throughout the morning he searched for a spot with a few trees and bushes around in order to hide and throw a surprise attack on some small four-star beast groups.

Suddenly he spotted an almost completely green bison walking around with its head held high.

No beast dared to come too close to it as it grazed nonchalantly.

Looking at the beast's mana core, Jason found out something interesting.

The aura around the beast was black which indicated its chances to reach the awakened rank. But, after scanning the mana core, it looked like it was a black horned bison with an elemental mutation as the mana had green-colored traces within.

It was extremely rare to see a wild beast having an elemental ability and the problem with wild beasts having an affinity was simple.

Huge amounts of mana had to be used in order to completely integrate the affinity to a wild stage beast´s body..

This caused the physique of these wild beasts to be weaker than their peers.

Looking at the highly likely wind-elemental mutated black horned bison in front of him, Jason estimated that its physical strength should be around a normal three-star wild beast.

Nevertheless having an elemental affinity caused it to be the strongest in its surroundings.

If a normal five-star wild beast were to attack this bison, Jason wouldn't even have to ponder over who the winner might be. The bison would probably use its element to shoot shards or blades out, easily killing the normal five-star wild beast.

Having a weaker physique wouldn't matter in this case as it was unnecessary to even use the physique to defeat its enemies.

And with such a mutation, once the bison reached higher ranks, the wind affinity would only become stronger while the disadvantage of having a weaker physique would diminish slowly.

Thinking for a while, Jason decided that attacking the mutated bison might be the easiest way to kill a five-star wild beast as its guard was down due to its overconfidence.

Jason sent out Artemis to keep an eye on the mutated bison while he thought of nearing the bison, without drawing too much attention to himself.

He thought of one solution, however, he didn't like this idea because he had to use Artemis as bait.

Calculating a few things he asked Artemis for her opinion, after which she replied confidently.

Though he was still worried, Artemis reassured him that she would be careful so he couldn't do anything about that anymore.