"Should I also..? Why not?!"
Jason had seen how the other participants were trying to comprehend the pressure weighing on them in order to enter an enlightened state.
Some of them were trying to understand how the higher-ups had constructed the complex magic circle with its three-layered pressure and how to employ it in different layers.
This also meant that they wanted to understand how to do it by themselves, and how to release only two particular layers of pressure, or what exactly was required to release their own specific pressure in addition to a standardized kind.
It was possible to learn how to regulate the pressure one released to a certain extent by simply observing, but comprehending through direct experience was still much better.
As such, Jason decided that it was time to stop sizing up his opponent's strength and to take care of his own matters.
After slowly retracting his Celestial aura and the stigma's glow, Jason stopped inserting mana inside his eyes.
His protection layers were slowly dispersing and he even had to actively suppress the instinctive protection mechanism, his Emperor Eyes, and Celestia aura so as to feel the same pressure everyone else was feeling.
It was only when he felt the oppression everyone else had been trying to withstand for the last 10 minutes that Jason smiled as his eyes gleamed in determination.
A moment later, he closed his eyes while trying to focus on nothing else but the pressure in his surroundings.
Droplets of sweat formed on his forehead, slowly trickling down his face, as he absorbed every little piece of information his senses perceived.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Similar to the other participants, he tried to understand how the pressure came to be, what were its prerequisites, and how the runes tied everything together.
The sheer mass of information he had to absorb and digest overwhelmed Jason more than the pressure weighing him down.
His body had no issues with the pressure at all, while his mind had been refined and baptized twice that helped him stay unfazed!
As for his mana veins and mana core, they had been baptized twice, refined several times, and received an amplification from Artemis.
Thus, he could digest the information easier than everyone else, allowing him to comprehend the oppression at a rapid pace.
His mind was working tirelessly and Jason sat down on the ground, cross-legged to focus better.
In the blink of an eye, 15 minutes had passed and only five minutes were left before the second decimator round would end.
There were still around 2,000 participants left which were more than the liberation tournament organizers had expected.
They wanted to further decrease the total count of participants who would make it through round two.
Thus, they instructed the higher-ups who controlled the overlapping pressure on the magic circle to crank it up further.
However, Jason didn't even notice anything around him.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})His entire mind seemed to have entered a state in which he only perceived the things he was fully focused on, a state where everything around him turned insignificant.
Jason's comprehension intensified as he entered an enlightened state in which his mind was able to work at more than double its usual speed.
In his mind, the entire oppression had been separated into their individual pieces that were in fact the different kinds of pressures. These had been combined and merged together in order to release a more terrifying effect.
They were multiplying each other, boosting one after another, and received a shared strengthening that increased the pressure in the last crucial minutes of the round to another level.
The amount of mana that was supplied in addition to a few particular runes within the magic circle were only released in order to further enhance the oppression, increasing it exponentially.
Jason had already imprinted every single rune in his mind as they were fortunately not as complex as the world bridges' runes.
That was if one looked at the runes individually which was what Jason had been forced to do in order to comprehend everything at such a rapid speed.
The second round had almost ended, and the number of participants who were fainting continued to increase. Those lying on the floor were carefully picked up by the medic team that had to be at the Prismar stage to enter and leave the magic circle unhindered.
Jason was the only participant who was sitting on the ground with ease, meditating as if he was cultivating, but compared to before, when he'd walked through the crowded magic circle, he didn't radiate any aura.
Meanwhile, his stigma was deactivated, and his eyes were closed without the faintest trace of a golden-silverish aura being released.
Not even mana fluctuations radiated from Jason, clearly showing that he was enduring the pressure like some of them did!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Nevertheless, the mana currents around Jason were swirling wildly as if they were suffocating, subconsciously enlarging the sensation he was feeling while amplifying the effect and area he affected.
What radiated from Jason was neither anything he had actively amplified or empowered by mana nor did it belong to his Celestia bloodline. It was something completely new he had comprehended out of the pressure radiating from the magic circle around him.
However, that had not been all because Jason used his memories about the oppressive divine aura, how he had felt every single time he had released the abyssal effect that had a high degree of intimidation and oppressive aura.
It was only then that his mind began to start to put together the million-piece puzzle of digested information, memories, and what Jason had wanted to create and achieve!
Unbeknownst to Jason, the sealed Celestia aura was seemingly screaming out, only to be held together by the illusionary locks that created a ginormous pattern of something unfathomable, something that could change the fate and predetermined future!
His entire being was releasing a suffocating pressure that was seemingly chaotic, yet organized.
It enlarged slowly, forcing the weakest of the remaining participants to retreat as the oppression caused by Jason intensified further.
Forced to retreat to the outer layers of the magic circle by an unadulterated pressure radiated by someone at the 2nd Lique stage made the participants feel ashamed of themselves.
They had already embarrassed their family, which caused them to grit their teeth and endure the humiliation as the pressure enveloped the entire magic circle.
Nobody dared to leave the magic circle now as only a few seconds were left before the second round would conclude.
Those last few seconds felt like an eternity and once the test was completed, and the magic circle deactivated, everyone who could flee out of the magic circle shot outside, leaving Jason and his chaotic, yet suppressive pressure alone.
This excluded those who had fainted just before the test had finished, and the medic team rushed to help them, piercing through Jason's pressure.
Initially, the medics at the Prismar stage expected that the magic circle in addition to the youth's chaotic pressure had caused a chain reaction forcefully oppressing the weakest remaining participants.
However, after they had entered the pressure released by Jason, their mind turned dizzy as Jason's entire being seemed to change.
It was as if something dark was deep within him, hidden, and in a deep state of hibernation, enveloping Jason's deepest secrets.
The pressure released by Jason caused the medic team to stumble for a moment before they regained their senses. They enveloped their body with a thick membrane of mana, preventing their mind from being deceived once again.
The citizens saw everything, but most didn't know that Jason was doing something extraordinary.
Yet, those who realized what he was doing couldn't help but feel a tiny spark of jealousy igniting within them.
"I wonder what kind of race he belongs to except the human bloodline...to comprehend how to radiate such a terrific pressure without using a single trace of mana…" The Old Ilian, Jason had already encountered before, said to his guest who had come to Argos just to attend the liberation tournament.
The guest had already solidified nine prismarine crystals and had barely been able to use the necessary world bridges as a means of transport to arrive in Argos.
It was only a tradition to attend the liberation tournament and he had only done so because his master had asked him to.
Fortunately, it would be the first and last time he would have to watch the tournament before breaking into the second threshold of the Prismar stage that would prevent him from returning for the time being.
The guest had already heard about Jason, the being labeled as a halfling, but he had thought that all of this was nothing but gibberish spewed by a drunkard.
This wouldn't be the first time he had heard a baseless rumor in one of the lowest worlds that were known for being nothing but empty talk.
Yet, what he had witnessed for the first time since he had hatched, was more than a little bit shocking, even for a being as he was.
"How can his natural pressure release faint remnants of the chaos attribute???"