When Haepha had perceived Jason's aura she was already suspicious about him, but seeing the stigma that glowed faintly, she could hardly contain herself.
Foreign races were able to determine that he was not a pure human right off the bat but that was different for humans.
They had never seen the unleashed aura from someone of the Celestia race and a stigma of a foreign race in their entire life.
As Jason heard that Haepha asked him if he had a trait without showing any signs of noticing that something was, he was sure that he was not in danger.
This didn't mean that Haepha wouldn't kill, attack, or do anything like that to him, which was still an existing possibility, but more thanks to the fact that even an 'Old one' was unable to tell whether he was a halfling, from a foreign race or a human with a unique trait.
However, there was only one problem with the latter point. If Jason had to count his visible 'unique' traits, there were three in total.
His Celestia aura, the stigma that glowed faintly, and his golden-silver shining eyes!
If he had only one of those traits, everything would be fine, maybe even two out of those three would be fine, but Jason had yet to hear from a human with three advantageous, foreign traits!
There were already prodigies with two strong traits but those traits were very different too and not like Jason's.
As such he could only smile lightly when Haepha had asked if he had a trait. He trusted his masters and took a deep breath before he said
"I'm sorry for my earlier rude behavior when Ms and my master were talking about. My name is Jason Stella and I'm a human...with the blood from a foreign race flowing through me!"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Bowing lightly he showed Haepha that he didn't harbor any ill-intentions, but Jason also expected to be eyed disgustingly or maybe even cursed at, when he heard a deep sigh from the middle-aged woman with red hair.
"That's your surprise Shane? How is someone like that called? Human mixling? Mutant? Halfling?...Probably Halfling, right?"
Haepha seemed to take this news relatively lightly, only for Jason to perceive that her eyes seemed to be a little bit distracted.
"I prefer being called by my name...Jason. That should be feasible, right? It's not like I was able to choose to be born as a halfling. Furthermore, I have never spoken to my father in person. To be honest, It hasn't been that long since I found out what exactly I am and I would be thankful if I can be treated like you would treat any human...if that's possible"
Jason was unsure how he should talk to someone he had never met before while knowing that she knew of his biggest secret.
At least he would call it like that.
There was nothing he wanted to hide as much as the fact that he was a halfling.
That might originate from the fact that humans and all foreign races he had encountered and heard from were hostile to each other.
As such it couldn't be a great opening to reveal his true identity right after he got to know someone new.
Right now, the situation was a little bit different but that was because he trusted Shane.
He had told Jason that everything would be okay, and that was exactly what was going on.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})There was no problem with his revelation, and it took Haepha less than a minute before she got the hang of herself once again.
She wanted to ask Jason lots of questions, but before Haepha could do so, she noticed how uncomfortable Jason was.
As such, she averted her attention to Shane as she asked
"So you want to forge a soul weapon for this youngster here? If he has the blood of a foreign race within him, his physical strength and mana sensitivity should be much higher...that's already good, but how about his affinities and soul world...wait! Does he even have a soul world?"
It was impossible to overlook that she was extremely interested in Jason, who had noticed that she avoided asking him questions when she saw how uncomfortable he was in the situation he was currently in.
After he saw this, he could only slap his cheeks, which was heard through the whole small shop, attracting everyone's attention.
Taking a deep breath, he calmed down before he couldn't help but smile drily as he said
"I'm ready to answer your questions, thanks for being so considerate!"
Haepha didn't expect Jason to be so polite which was rare to see amongst prodigies, to which the young black-haired youth definitely belonged.
She was unsure how old he was but she doubted that he had passed the age of 18 years!
Suddenly Dalia pointed at Jason's hair as she said
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"Jason! You have a grey… no, two silver strands in your hair!!"
When Jason heard this, he felt weird for a moment, however, he didn't panic as Shane or the others had expected.
Rather than that, he turned towards one of the shelves where all kinds of antiquity were placed inside.
Some of them were shining brightly and he was able to see his mirrored appearance within the unknown, metallic objects.
"Oh! There really are some silver-colored strands...at least this change won't make anyone more suspicious about my heritage.."
Smiling lightly he turned back to the others that stared at him weirdly as he smiled
"It's not like my looks are disfigured because of a few silver-colored strands in my black hair, right??"
Scratching the back of his head, he turned to Shane as he asked
"Was my blacksmith practice with the purification of grade-3 ores because of the soul weapon you want to forge? Now that my bloodline has awakened, I should be able to purify almost all grade-3 ores perfectly. That is if both Solaris and I won't be pressured by time!"
He had already been confident in himself, but now that he awakened the Celestia bloodline, everything about himself had been augmented to a previously unimaginable degree!
It wouldn't even wonder Jason if Solaris' abilities had been strengthened by the stigma it had engraved on its mana core!
However, when Haepha heard what Jason said she could help but eye Jason and Shane weirdly.
Shane didn't seem to say anything and just nodded his head to which Jason remained silent and it looked like they had a silent agreement about what Jason had said before.
Because Haepha couldn't understand why Shane allowed a youngster to reduce superior grade-3 ores, which was even more difficult to forge with than peak-grade-3 ores, to ingots, even less purify them, she had to voice out her concerns.
"I should have a few kilograms of Yvaldranite- and Affanyr ore left, but it should be barely enough to forge two longswords...at most! It's clear what I want to say, right? There will only be two tries for both and these ores are extremely sensitive to the surrounding heat and mana! Two mistakes and everything will be for naught!
Not even I can confidently say that I'm able to purify them more than halfway through, let alone perfectly purifying them, why are you so confident??"
It was obvious why she was so confused. According to the news she heard, her blacksmithing capabilities were the best within mankind and she had already forged many grade-4 weapons!
Yet, she was not confident in perfectly purifying Yvaldranite or Affanyr ore. At least not if she had only two attempts. If it were a dozen, Haepha would be confident to find one good ore, whose complex mana veins didn't overlap, hindering impurities from being expelled. However, even if she would find a perfect ore, she would rather stop after purifying either of those ores at 70% because it was too risky!
Yet, Shane only gazed at Jason who shrugged his shoulders.
"Solaris' control over its flame and the accuracy of maintaining the flame's temperature should be perfect as long as it doesn't go….above 4000°C? I don't think we have to talk about my eyes, right? The only thing I have to pay attention to is that the impurities won't touch or even injure the mana veins.
My control over mana is much higher than before, but I'm not sure to what extent it has increased. If I can't even purify those grade-3 ores with my mana eyes, an origin flame, and my mana perception, I might as well stop comparing myself to other foreign races!
Two attempts! Give me one and I'll show you what I'm capable of after undergoing the primal awakening of the Celestia bloodline!"
