It was obvious how dangerous the current times were and Jason couldn't help but feel that he had to figure out more about those foreign races and the Ifry.
There was no way that the Ifrytor was the only race that targeted the Shandra country, otherwise, there had to be a good reason for this.
As such, it was obvious how important it was to acquire more information.
While his strength had advanced, the same applied to his soulbonds that had become much stronger.
The sole exception was Solaris because Jason restricted its growth by not supplying any soul energy to it.
His current soul energy had already reached more than 200,000 units, but Jason was still not happy about that!
As such, if it was not necessary, Jason would refrain from nurturing Solaris for the time being!
Meanwhile, Jason couldn't tell how many soul energy units Byakur annexed because the way the soul weapon occupied his soul energy units was completely different than his soulbonds did.
While Jason perceived a connection between annexed soul energy and the soulbond that annexed it, this was not the case with Byakur who seemed to annex soul energy, yet somehow, not!
It was not a major problem but Jason found it odd and it was always better to be prepared for every scenario, otherwise, he might run into trouble before he knew it.
Being prepared was always good which was another reason for him to not nurture Solaris with the vacant soul energy units he had accumulated!
Jason was currently standing inside the backyard practicing the Devious Swordmaster martial art technique and he couldn't help but reveal a confident smile.
The Tier-2 martial art technique reached the familiar mastery and broke into the experience mastery within a single month.
This showed how much of an advantage his advanced bloodline, refined brain and a perfectly compatible sword had in order to increase one's comprehension.
It wouldn't be long before he would be able to reach profound mastery if his pace remained the same.
Less than 24 hours had passed since Shane had told everyone about the news of the Ifrytor race infiltrating the Shandra country and the final preparations were concluded.
Emily was the weakest member of their group and her mana core rank was barely at the 6th Master rank.
This was already a great achievement for someone who has yet to turn 17 years old, however, she had absorbed mana next to a large mana vein for almost 8 months.
If she was not even able to reach the 6th Master rank in such a long time under such a great environment, she could have just given up on herself.
Nevertheless, even if Emily was the weakest, the Lesser typhoon Roc had finally liquefied 30 drops of mana.
This meant that their combined strength would be enough to fight against most Lowest Lique stage beasts, though she should evade foreign races and most transformed humans if possible.
'Transformed human' was a new term used by most common humans when they saw someone whose appearance is different to theirs.
It was created when the first few humans that looked different appeared next to the foreign races.
There were many humans that had been lured to the foreign races' sides and almost every single one of them had reached a much higher combat prowess than they previously had.
Transforming brought them many benefits and even if they knew that their body couldn't take the metamorphosis, or serum that had been injected into them, most of them were confident that their body would be able to assimilate to the substance soon!
When Jason and the others departed, leaving behind Haepha, who said that she had to do something, it didn't take them long before they encountered the first small group of Ifrytor and Ifry!
They were traveling at a high altitude without using Shane's spatial affinity because foreign races with a higher combat prowess might be able to detect Shane's mana fluctuation and pursue them.
However, Jason doubted that it was safer to fly through the air because Shane was using mana to run through the air.
He was one of the few people who didn't want to tame a flying beast, thinking that it was useless, while Dalia was in a similar situation, only that she had been unable to bind many soulbonds.
At the same time, her possibilities were restricted due to the affinities she had awoken.
Only Jason and Emily had flying beasts, however, there was still the difference that Jason was using his fortified soul conjunction with Artemis to fly while Emily had to sit on the ten-meter-long Lesser typhoon Roc.
The first thing Shane had wanted to do when he saw the first group of Ifrytor and Ifry was to attack and kill them, only to be held back by Dalia and Jason at the same time.
Dalia thought that it was not wise to reveal his mana fluctuation and killing intent to obvious. A stronger Ifrytors might be nearby and Jason's mana eyes which he had consistently supplied with mana could suddenly perceive lots of mana fluctuations further in the back.
There seemed to be a battlefield and the Ifrytor and Ifry seemed to be on their way towards the battlefield in order to act as reinforcement.
Unfortunately, they had to encounter Jason, his masters, and Emily before.
"There is a battlefield ahead, I'll take care of the Ifrytors and Ifry here, you guys can already go ahead and take a look. There should a few at the late Lique stage, but the strongest mana fluctuations I perceived were at the peak Lique stage and nobody should have consolidated a prismarine crystal yet."
Smiling lightly, he turned towards the Ifrytor and Jason couldn't tell why, but Solaris had begun to act weirdly.
He was not sure what was going on but it had definitely something to do with the Ifryr. At least that was what he comprehended after seeing the flames enveloping the transformed humans.
The flames were completely different from normal fire affinities, yet also different from origin flames, and Jason couldn't help but feel that he had to investigate it further.
Shane noticed that something pricked Jason's interest but instead of saying anything he just nodded his head.
Jason became much stronger throughout the last two years they knew each other and it was obvious that he was able to take care of himself.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to survive venturing into two rifts that would have killed everyone at Jason's mana core rank!
Dalia left Jason only reluctantly, but after she sensed the mana fluctuations of the Ifrytors and Ifrys that were almost a distance of one kilometer away from them she nodded her head.
"Be careful and don't lower your guard! Some of them were once humans, but remember one thing….They won't hesitate a single moment to kill you too!"
Jason nodded his head, while Emily didn't say anything. She was scared that he had to enter war. At the age of almost 17 years with a puny strength that had yet to reach the standards of an average magus rank!!
What was she even doing right now? Approaching a battlefield of foreign races and humans that had liquefied their mana, manifesting attacks that destroyed their surrounding landscape? Good Idea!!
She was only able to stay confident because Shane and Dalia were next to her, while Jason was much stronger than one could think!
Staring towards the Ifrytor and Ifry, Jason couldn't help but take a deep breath before he pressed Artemis' wings on his back, adjusting his angle to dive towards his first life-and-death battle against a foreign race and humans!
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