Their call ended abruptly as the messenger crystal began to crumble a little bit, and Jason was sure that it would only hold out at most one or two more calls.
However worse was the turmoil of emotions he created within his masters, which he didn't expect.
'Should I have waited until we meet in person?!' Thinking about this, Jason could only lament that he was sometimes extremely dense, in the worst possible situations at that.
It didn't matter how intelligent Jason thought he was if he acted so dense in front of others….
Sighing deeply, he decided to calm down by refining his body before he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique.
After washing up, Jason slept, expectant what would happen the next day, as the tournament would start.
He was still not sure what exactly his masters planned, but it was already enough for him to know that they were confident to rescue him from the Drake family patriarch's grasp.
That was if he were to appear, which Jason estimated to be unlikely because last time was already a waste of time according to the Drake family patriarch's words.
As such, Jason could just give his best without holding back, which caused him to smile foolishly.
Sleeping soundly, he woke up several hours later, when he heard that Scorpio and Artemis quarreled with each other.
When Artemis told him that his soul world was boring to stay in for a long duration, Jason decided to let them out as long as possible.
This meant that they could stay outside when he was at the Fler's or when he meets up with his masters once again, as walking with them through the city was not really what he or his soulbonds imagined to do.
Getting out of the bed, he stretched his body before caressing his two soulbonds.
Working out, and washing up, Jason felt extremely invigorated as he changed into a clean set of clothes before walking down to the Fler's that were already eating.
Greg and Malia looked like they were nervous, while they only noticed his excitement.
He wanted to have a few good fights and the Big-Three tournament would allow him to see how strong he was compared to his peers, which was something he wanted to figure out.
In the end, Jason would only fight against his strongest peers on Astrix, without considering any other islands, or even Canir.
Nevertheless, it was already enough for him to roughly estimate his strength, which was exactly what he wanted!
As such, he greeted the four sitting in front of their breakfast overjoyed, as he sat down with them.
Taking out a few high-nutrition dishes, he bought in bulk as he needed the nutrition for his Heaven's Hell practice, Jason ate them with a faint smile on his face.
However compared to the Fler's his hunger was still much higher and Jason noticed that his demand for nutrition increased after he practiced the Netherworld's fort body refining technique, which was however not out of his expectations.
Talking with each other, Jason noticed that even though Greg was nervous, whose confidence increased by a large margin after Taurus evolved into a Lesser Minotaur, which benefited both of them greatly.
Smiling lightly, the five of them decided to go to Cyro-City's main arena together, which was situated in the center of the city and used for the Big-Three tournament.
The Big-Three tournament had been split into three different segments in order to group the students, and that surprised Jason in the beginning.
The first few rounds of the tournament would be held at the same time because it would be difficult to cope with the sheer number of contestants and scheduled period, the government wanted the tournament to take place.
As such, each of the three tournaments, also called Basic-, Intermediate-, Advanced- tournament or to make it easy, first-year-, second-year- and third-year-tournament was split into different sections.
With the first rounds at the same time, they would only take a few days, while the rounds afterward would be scheduled over the course of the day.
While the Basic-tournament would be held in the morning, the Intermediate-tournament would start after lunch, with the Advanced tournament in the evening.
This was only, because the first few rounds were less entertaining, while the latter could be completely different and more thrilling.
However, even if the three Big-Three tournaments were divided in the morning, after lunch, and evening section, most citizens would only take a look at the Advanced tournament in the evening because the students' combat prowess was much higher, indicating a more spectacular fight.
Jason didn't really bother if anyone were to watch his fights in the beginning but that changed slightly when he remembered that the Drake family patriarch could see his fights.
It was unlikely but still possible and Jason decided to believe Shane, who told him that he would take care of everything, even if he would feel extremely useless, as a damsel in distress.
Once they finished their breakfast, everyone started their preparations before Mark took out their limousine, which Jason already got to know in Jiro city.
The limousine was extremely fast and luxurious, but compared to a few months ago, he couldn't help but chuckle lightly, as he remembered his naivety and non-existent knowledge he had at that time.
So many things changed over the course of several months and he was only about to start his journey!
Smiling, Jason entered the limousine followed by the others before they started their short trip to Cyro-City's arena.
Arriving in front of the arena, they got out of the hovering limousine as they looked up to the glamorous, yet seemingly profound and tall building which didn't was different from the surrounding building complexes, but Jason could immediately tell a big difference.
The materials used to build the arena radiated thick mana fluctuations and even a faint green-pinkish hue was released from the whole building.
Trying to figure out what this hue meant, Jason and the Fler's immediately felt a vigorous sensation enveloping and infiltrating them, as they entered the arena.
Forced to halt their steps for a second, his eyes widened, as he wondered if this vigorous and energizing sensation was caused by the green-pinkish hue his mana eyes perceived.
'Can I also see something like this?' He wondered, and it really seemed to be the case that he could even the unique effects some materials innately had.
Figuring this out, Jason felt slightly overwhelmed but it was nevertheless something extremely good.
As such, he shook his head and followed the Fler's who already walked ahead.
Splitting up, Malia went to the third floor, while he and Greg had to enter the first floor in order to compete against 3000 other youths.
Gabriella and Mark followed Malia at first, as they wanted to see how she would fare and to support her by cheering, while Greg had Jason to support him.
Entering the arena, both Greg and Jason noticed that more than 1000 youths were already present, split up in their own groups, glaring at each other as if they were arch-enemies.
'Are they gonna kill each other or what?' Jason asked himself, as a few youths suddenly glared at him when he noticed that his mana core was scanned.
While a minority began to laugh out, there were more youths who continued to look at him and Greg carefully.
The latter reaction was uncommon for Jason to receive, but it was exactly the same reaction he would have if he were to see a 6th Adept rank in the Big-Three tournament hall!
If two youths with a 6th and 7th Adept mana core rank were able to get a seat for the Big-Three tournament, they couldn't be taken lightly because they had to defeat other students that were at least at the 9th Adept rank, more likely even 1st Expert rank.
As such, their combat prowess, experience, martial art techniques, and most likely even soulbonds had to be extraordinary.
While they were carefully seized up by several hundred pairs of eyes, only a few dozen laughed out after figuring out their mana core rank, and Jason immediately knew that these few dozen would underestimate him, which was beneficial in his opinion.
In the end, they would figure out that he was not someone to laugh at after he beat them up, and somehow deep within, Jason hoped that he would be matched against one of the few dozen students who laughed.
It was still early and there was more than enough time left until the tournament would start which caused Jason and Greg to sit down in order to prepare their equipment when he noticed that Seron and Milo approached them.
Greeting each other, he introduced Greg to the two and vice versa, before the group of four began to talk lightly with each other without minding the others.
Jason was still relaxed because he doubted that anyone in the first few rounds would become a serious threat to him, which caused the others around him to release their tension subconsciously.