With the black origin flame manifested within him, Jason could easily endure the mysterious poisonous fog, whose origin was still unknown, while his journey through the elemental crystal cave continued.
He didn't venture much deeper into the cave's depths because the poison's density increased, while the mountain of elemental crystals within his storage device amassed.
Jason was sure that he had more than enough funds for Scorpio's evolution and probably even a surplus, which caused him to feel extremely great, while he could barely estimate the current date, without knowing what time it is.
'Has it already been six days?' Jason wondered when he entered his soul world in order to practice the Heaven's Hell technique once again.
He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't comfortably sleep in the cave, leading him to barely sleep only one time after he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique, and he woke up with his soul energy fully replenished.
Thanks to the dense mana around him he didn't really feel tired and instead of solely mining elemental crystals, Jason also absorbed mana actively not missing a single time to practice the Heaven's Hell technique three to four times a day.
Because he only slept a short amount of time and in order to have a rough track of time, Jason was forced to use up his soul energy as soon as it was replenished.
With his soul world's soul energy replenishing speed of slightly less than 6 hours, he could practice the Heaven's Hell technique three to four times a day.
The most time-consuming in this case was, however, that his practice required a whole hour until it was completed, while he had to eat a huge feast every time.
Regretting that he forgot to buy high-nutrition food, Jason could only force himself to eat low-nutrition food on mass, even if his stomach and mind revolted against him eating one dish after another, seemingly without stopping.
In the end, everything was worth the effort, with his soul energy increasing to 316.2 units, while Artemis' demand increased by another 10 units.
With this, Jason was overjoyed to have a surplus of soul energy, which would most likely be used up once Scorpio finished his evolution.
But even if that was the case, he was sure that the same scenario as it happened with Artemis wouldn't happen because he learned out of his prior mistakes.
Having Artemis around him for more than a month was not necessarily bad, but it had its disadvantages.
The last six days were quite boring for Jason and he couldn't do much, except absorbing mana, mining crystals, practicing the Heaven's Hell technique, or doing a full-body workout and everything he did brought him benefits.
His mana core was already filled by a quarter and if he were to focus on absorbing the mana within the elemental crystal cave for the remaining 8 days, Jason was confident to breakthrough.
But that was not necessary, because he was already confident in his current strength and even if he were to use the next week to breakthrough, it was more important for him to find his way towards the highland plateau.
Initially, he only wanted to recuperate his broken shoulder, but the cave's value convinced him to stay here for the last six days.
However, what he saw at the cavern entrance told him that other humans entered the cave a few hours ago, searching for ways towards the deeper layer, which frustrated Jason quite a bit.
He wanted everything for himself, but being greedy would only bring him more problems than benefits.
As such, Jason had to find a path towards the surface, without being found, otherwise, he wasn't sure what the small group that entered the cave would do with him.
He was sure that they would question him if he already mined something and demand him to hand it over, which was not something Jason would ever want to do.
Humans were innately self-centered, at least since the mana breakout and only a few wouldn't care about Jason's fortune, without eying him with greed.
Because of that, he had to remain unseen.
Jason's big advantage was his mana eyes that could see all tunnels and where they lead to, while it was hardly possible for anything to remain unnoticed, as long as it released mana.
One such unnoticed, manaless thing was the mysterious poison at the deeper parts of the case, while Jason was unsure if anyone concealing their mana core could remain hidden from him.
Thinking back on the time, he saw through Max Drake's concealed mana core, Jason was sure that it would be hard for any living being to remain hidden from him, as long as he focused on anything around him.
Nevertheless, his previous confidence about the superiority of his mana eyes diminished with the existence of the mana-less poisonous fog and he couldn't trust them fully anymore as he also looked through everything with his normal eyes.
Without concentrating on the mana flow, Jason could see everything normally and extremely clear and he searched for a path towards the surface without being found out.
Suddenly, he heard something behind him, and thinking that neither Scorpio nor Artemis were outside the soul world, Jason turned around as fast as he could.
With his mana eyes still activated, Jason couldn't perceive any fluctuations at all, as soil crumbled down the wall his attention was fixated on.
His eyes widened in shock, as he thought that another earthquake might happen, only to see that not a single pebble crumbled from other walls, except the one he stared at in the beginning.
Suddenly a grey lizard head pierced through the wall he looked at, shoving away the earth thanks to its flat head.
Jason's eyes widened with a sudden thought filling his whole mind 'I can't see its mana fluctuations!! Did I jinx it?!'
Looking shocked at the Lizard showing through the wall, he immediately began to gather multiple pieces of information.
'I can't see its mana fluctuation but without the earth wall between the lizard...no is that a Drake?...Nevermind… without the wall, I can barely perceive a dark-green color, which means this Drake might be at the unblemished rank, right??'
Circulating more mana into his eyes, Jason tried everything to see through the Drake in front of it, which was hardly possible.
From its appearance, the drake looked like a lizard with long, scaled limbs, while its spine was filled with protrusions.
The drake's color was a plain grey, while its protrusions and claws were pitch-black, but Jason didn't care about its look at all.
'Why can't I see your mana rank and fluctuations?! What is special about you???' He almost shouted, because the jinx he inclined to himself shattered his whole confidence over his mana eyes.
But what was even worse, was that even more Drakes without any mana fluctuations emerged out of the crumbling wall in front of Jason, causing him to step back, while subconsciously concealing his mana core as well as possible.
Retreating as far as possible without making a sound, Jason could barely see the grey untraceable Drakes anymore and he had never heard of any Drake with a flat skull, allowing it to excavate tunnels underground, while it can conceal its mana core completely.
Seeing that every single one of the untraceable Drakes had the same ability, even the smaller ones in the back, Jason concluded that it was an innate ability, they received when they were born, which was not less shocking.
There was no need for Jason to remain at the lower layers of the cave and he slowly retreated further towards the surface.
Without his mana eyes being able to ensure him that he was not pursued by someone, he felt naked and insecure...
Upon noticing this, he felt weird
'To what extent did I rely on my mana eyes?!?'
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