As they entered the second hall, Jason noticed that it was even bigger than the first hall where all the monsters were inside and by a large margin at that.
It was a gigantic underground city with large compressed-stone compounds that were connected with wooden suspension bridges.
In the middle of the underground city, one could see a huge natural water stream, separating a hundred-meter-high building that almost looked like the buildings made by higher nobles.
At least similar valuable materials were used to build it and Jason could see mana radiating around the whole building.
However, much more important was what he saw inside the building.
Jason was still not extremely proficient with his mana eyes and he wasn't able to look through too many stone layers or rather materials with larger amounts of mana inside.
Nevertheless, Jason could see that multiple colors radiated from within the large compound, and these colors seemed somewhat different than the ones radiating from beasts.
Not only were the colors rather weak but also extremely close next to each other and not moving.
There was the chance that Jason's instincts were wrong and these colors represented goblins or other sleeping beasts but he didn't think the Goblin King would let goblin soldier or similar low-ranked beasts inside such a magnificent building as high ranked beast seemed to have at least some pride.
Shane looked at the large building compound and turned to Jason with a crafty smile.
"Let me be honest with you. The rescue team will need at most 20minutes to arrive. With you, I'll be slowed down which means I can gather fewer treasures. There is not a single beast left inside the large building compound in front of us which means I can leave you alone, right? "
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He said and Jason wasn´t even able to say anything at all as Shane already vanished from his sight.
'Did he really leave me alone?' Jason wondered and he had to acknowledge that Shane´s greed was almost obsessive in addition to his slightly cruel side he gave other humans.
This caused him to think about Shane´s behavior towards himself, which was rather nice and gentle until now.
`He also tried to explain me a lot, right?` He asked himself, not knowing how exactly he should think about Shane.
These things confused him and Jason was unsure what Shane wanted from him.
Previously he said that he wanted to talk to him but until now there hadn't been a real discussion between both of them.
He believed Shane's statement that the magnificent building in front of him didn´t have any beasts as he predicted and seeing Shane's vast mana core radiations appearing in front of something that radiated a purple hue, Jason concluded that these colors were either extremely potent and pure herbs or other valuable materials.
Over the last few weeks, Jason questioned himself more about the ability of his eyes, and the more he thought about the colors he could see radiating from almost every living being except humans and Artemis, the less he really understood about his ability.
Artemis' color was somewhat disguised with him being unable to look through it and exactly the same case was with humans.
Neither did humans radiate a certain color nor did they not radiate anything, causing Jason to feel weird and uncomfortable, as both scenarios at the same time should be impossible.
Was their potential unlimited or the purity in humans and Artemis not fixed?
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})In the end, it didn't really matter what exactly the truth as both of his solutions would tell him roughly the same.
'The more distinct a color, the more valuable it is, furthermore the thickness and size of the colored hue could also be seen as a fact to determine the value.'
From his long-time observation, Jason could say that light-gray colors radiating meant that it was more valuable, stronger, or better in effect than the object that radiated a black hue.
In addition to that Jason could also determine that two things of the same color could be better or worse while comparing both of them.
The thicker, denser, or larger the same colored hue was compared to the other one, the better its effect or strength had to be.
The only problem were rare items that didn´t radiate any color, as he had seen some mana weapons from the goblin raid a few hours ago, that didn´t radiate any color, even though they were extremely expensive and valuable
But Jason didn´t have any time to think about something like that.
With this knowledge in mind, he stepped through the building entrance.
Looking around, Jason saw a huge entrance hall with four white pillars supporting the whole building.
There were large stairs in a helix shape that would allow him to go upstairs, while a large door could be seen in every direction with unknown letters and symbols engraved above them on a sign.
Jason was unsure where to go but seeing the speed at which Shane was collecting the valuable goods, he seemed to be a proficient looting expert.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Each item or material Shane collected had the strongest colors radiating from them and Jason knew he wouldn't be able to obtain anything extremely good.
As such he used the same tactic as Goblins as he utilized his weightless step movement technique with his basic mastery to charge through the right door which had the weakest colors radiating from it, while they were extremely close next to each other with a high quantity!
Jason wasn't sure what it exactly was, but he had a small hunch and if he was right his need for credits would vanish into thin air.
It was not like he was extremely greedy, but he knew that resources were important to increase his strength and combat prowess as quickly as possible.
Without wealth, even with the best aptitude towards mana absorbing and refining, he would lose out.
Considering Jason´s superior aptitude towards mana, he would be considered a genius everywhere else but he was still much worse compared to people with above-average aptitudes and a mountain of resources.
If Jason didn´t know it before, he would have noticed it at the latest, when he used the [Splitting Mind] technique to refine a sub-area in his mind.
Since then his absorption and refining of mana skyrocketed and combined with his mana aptitude he could be considered extremely talented.
But creating his sub-area was only possible because of resources and Jason wanted to refine his second sub-area in the future while resources required to accomplish that were multiple times larger than for the first sub-area.
For the first mind division, Till paid a few hundred star -notes for the mana stones, while he wasn´t sure about the price for a non-elemental Lord rank mana core.
In the end, Jason couldn´t even imagine the value of a Devilish valkyrie-shield fruit, even though it was extremely painful, its efficiency was not to be neglected.
This caused Jason a slight headache as he stormed through the hallway which was connected to many doors.
But this didn't cause him to look through all of them to inspect them, rather than that Jason had a certain target in his view with the most colors and mana fluctuations situated in a certain place, gathered together.
Not even a full minute passed when Jason entered his desired room that was filled with a fragrant aroma streaming towards him.
Taking a deep breather, Jason immediately felt more vigorous, and looking around, he noticed that he was inside a garden with many different kinds of herbs and fruits within.
Each of these herbs and fruits radiated a certain color with the strongest being a single thin dark green colored herb, situated in the center.
Dark green was the indicator for unblemished beasts, if what he saw was a beast but for plants, the colors were apparently slightly different.
For example, the Siphon-agnus-castus Jason found could even be used to help beasts with the potential to reach the unblemished rank, to evolve, while the color it radiated was only light-gray which was comparable to the evolved rank.
Jason was overjoyed because Shane seemed to be occupied with some extraordinary plants or other materials on the higher floors as the colors he saw up there were mostly green as he smiled lightly.
`This trip is really fruitful for me... I have to thank Shane later for bringing me with him!`
He thought as he began to pick the herbs in accordance to the theoretical knowledge he learned from the herb books he memorized.
Jason tried not to injure these herbs, stems, and roots, to plant them again, as the fruits didn´t seem to be completely ripe yet.
The only unfortunate thing for Jason was, that he couldn´t bring living beings inside his spatial storage as it was not good enough.
As such Jason pondered what he should do, as some of these herbs, stems, and trunks were relatively large.
He couldn´t just take out a large bag and run around with it, as all plants together would be multiple times his size and weight.
Making a decision, Jason decided to use his mana to seal the unripe herbs, to cause a similar situation than death.
It would decrease the efficiency of the herbs but Jason could live with that if he would be able to get all of them with him.
Storing the sealed herbs away, Jason looked at the soil and noticed it was also radiating mana.
As such he didn't have to think long as he stored it away, leaving empty pots behind.
Turning around, Jason noticed many necessary things used for gardening and he collected all of them, before leaving the completely cleared room in a rush.
Looking at the time that seemed to disappear without him knowing, Jason noticed that there was only enough time for him to clear a few more rooms.
However, an unknown emotion began to ignite within him, as he was about to become too greedy because he wanted to rush back to the main entrance into another hallway.
He had already cleared the biggest room in these hallways while the quality of the materials in the other floors was much better compared to the remaining things, Jason could receive here.
Trying to keep a cool mind, Jason decided to clear the rooms with the most herbs gathered at a single spot while impatiently making his way back to the main entrance.
Almost 15 minutes passed and Jason was back to the main entrance, while his face was dirtied by the soil, he collected.
Entering the next hallway, a burning heatwave flooded him.
