Chapter 397 - One Step At A Time

Jason stiffened when he felt searing pain that had already been reduced to a quarter of what it should be, spreading through his body
It was shocking how painful refining his second sub-are was but comparing it to the first time where he had yet to establish a fortified soul conjunction with any of his soulbonds, Jason didn't feel like he should be complaining.
??
The first time was much more painful, which mainly stemmed from the fact that he had to eat the devilish valkyrie-shield fruit that caused greater pain than the brain refinement did.
This was now different because the brain-protection fruit he ate did nothing but protect and recuperate his brain, preventing any type of serious damage to his brain.
As such, he suppressed the pain and tried to ignore it as well as possible before he focused on the task at hand.
First, Jason had to refine his brain before he had to split up a small part of it.
After that, he could decide for what he wanted to use the second sub-area that could do almost everything passively.
That was if the process was not too taxing to do passively.
Jason was not sure if it would affect each other, but having two sub-areas with different tasks shouldn't repulse each other.
At least Shane told him so.
While the first sub-area would stay like it was, the second sub-area wouldn't be able to use the whole capabilities the first sub-area had.
This was also the reason why most descendants of big clans established only one sub-area or at most two in order to create a passive mana gathering cycle and a soul energy increment cycle.
In the end, this was exactly what Jason wanted to do too.
Even if his soul energy would only increase by 1% per day, it would generate a huge amount of soul energy units as time passed.
In several months he should be able to increase his soul energy by 1,000 units a day and Jason couldn't help but feel like most patriarchs had several million vacant soul energy units without any use for them.
This was mainly because they were unable to catch and form a contract with a stronger beast and the fact that their soul world was fully occupied.
The latter was less of a problem, but the former was problematic because it would take some time before mankind would reach higher ranks, allowing them to catch and restrict stronger beasts.
Little did he know that everyone was accumulating soul energy desperately!
Jason had fewer problems than those humans because he was now in possession of three soulbonds without potential, while Scorpio's potential was restricted.
Yet, after Solaris evolved into a Tier-1 Origin flame, it should be able to purify Scorpio's body from a small amount of impurities.
However, they had to test out if this was truly possible, or else, Scorpio might be injured while experimenting, which was not something Jason wanted to see.
Solaris, Artemis, and the unhatched petrification serpent didn't have any potential, or rather Jason felt like he was unable to see it, which was exactly the same with humans and those foreign races.
They had the same mysterious hue around them, even though it was a little bit different to his soulbonds' hue!
**
Several hours had passed since Jason had started to refine his brain while his soulbonds endured Jason's pain with him.
"I expected him to scream out in pain or suffer more. It's good that he looks fine!" Shane said, visibly relieved that Jason didn't have to endure too much pain as Dalia said.
"You forgot that he has multiple fortified soul conjunctions, right? He and his soulbonds share the pain amongst each other, otherwise, he would definitely despair right now...The creation of the first sub-are is nothing in comparison to the second one...If he didn't have such a firm bond with his soulbonds and fortified soul conjunctions, I wouldn't have allowed him to create his second sub-area!"
Shane could only nod his head when Dalia said this, while Emily flinched every time Jason's lips twitched in pain.
"Do I have to endure that pain too?" She mumbled, thinking that it might be more painful to become stronger than she had expected.
"Not really...with enough time I coul have concocted a unique potion called 'pain nullifying potion'. The person who drinks this potion won't feel any pain for an entire weak and is much stronger than some painkillers! On the contrary, one would have problems absorbing mana for a whole month....
Jason is not only enduring the pain without such a potion but the pace at which he processes everything is much faster than one would normally refine his brain.
At least under normal circumstances if one wanted to avoid enduring too much pain at once….I think he is afraid of Shane's warning about the leaking mana.
Jason prevents mana from leaking by absorbing it as fast as possible. As such the mana has not a single moment to search for an area to escape!"
After Dalia explained everything, Emily signed in relief before her respect for Jason skyrocketed as she realized what her master had said.
'He absorbs the mana, preventing it from leaking out of a mana isolation magic circle? And why didn't he ask Dalia to concoct him a pain nullifying potion? Does he think that's wasting time or...maybe he thinks that has no time left!'
Staring at Jason, who was sweating profusely, not knowing what kind of determination and ambition one needed, to attain firm willpower as Jason had, Emily couldn't help but be in awe.
**
24 hours had passed since Jason started to refine his brain when he was finally done with this step.
Now he had to split his mind which was equally painful if not even more.
Taking a deep breath he followed the splitting mind technique's guide and split a small part of his mind to create the second sub-area while screaming out in pain.
Meanwhile, his soul world was filled with screams, and Jason couldn't help but sever the connection with his soulbonds, taking on the remaining pain by himself.
There were only a few minutes he had to endure everything and Jason didn't want his soulbonds to receive trauma from the pain he had to endure.
As such he had decided to bear the pain alone, only to notice how horrific it was and his scream intensified.
Barely able to retain his consciousness, 30 minutes passed until Jason's second sub-area was finally constructed.
His mind didn't receive any kind of backlashes which was great, but he felt extremely exhausted as he slumped on the ground where Jason laid down.
After he had finished establishing his second sub-area, Jason's consciousness remained fully awake, yet, his body had entered a weakened state.
Looking at the ceiling he felt extremely tired, yet energized at the same time as the remaining mana that was gathering in the mana vortex rune above him was absorbed by his mana eyes whose desire for mana increased with every day passing.
Jason couldn't explain what exactly his mana eyes were but they were definitely something unique and he didn't even realize that they were able to absorb mana slowly without him doing anything.
The mana his first sub-area absorbed increased as the gathered mana was directly transferred to his mana eyes.
His mana eyes released a faint golden glow which was the cause for the passive mana gathering to accelerate until the last trace of mana was fully absorbed into his mana eyes.
He was not sure what was going on, but it was definitely not something bad, considering that he could passively absorb lots of mana into his mana eyes as long as he could do something else actively.
As such it shouldn't be problematic.
'Now... let's see how I can create the continuous soul energy cycle to receive the best result before taking the next step!'
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