After Artemis evolved, Jason got a clear picture of her capabilities.
As he was thinking about her abilities, she dove towards him, clinging to Jason, as if she hadn't met him for centuries. She wrapped her wings around him, not letting him even move for a single moment.
Thus, he had to wait for quite some time before he was free again.
However, she didn't leave his side. Instead, Artemis took her usual spot on his shoulder and began using her newly attained affinity in all kinds of ways.
Testing the moonlight affinity, and what exactly it was capable of, Jason learned many new things, including that the moonlight affinity had properties related to healing, as well as enhancement of the body and affinities, which Jason had already felt before.
Through the test results, Jason got to know a lot, and he was eager to use the moonlight affinity for himself.
Unfortunately, this would take some time because the affinity seed had yet to be fully constructed in Jason's mana core.
Because of that, he had to think of a different way to approach the situation, and came up with a solution in no time!
"Let's test our fusion too!" Jason suggested, as he approached the gate that led towards the 12th Floor.
He knew that Artemis' strength was not extremely high yet, but with her fusion, he could test the moonlight affinity. Thus he was impatiently waiting as it was currently being transferred to Jason's mana core in order to let him use it actively.
However, without the comprehension and understanding of the moonlight affinity, he had to take Artemis' guidance in order to properly use it.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Excited about being able to use a new affinity after such a long time, he couldn't help but be restless as the gate opened itself.
Yet, before a beast emerged from it, Jason heard a complaint from one of his soulbonds who felt neglected because Jason was excited about Artemis' moonlight affinity.
It was Spyro, who Jason had never actively made use of before.
He spent considerable time with all of his soulbonds, but, in the end, he had no idea what Spyro could even do.
Earlier, even the Spiral Spirit had been oblivious to its capabilities, but it began grumbling the moment Jason's attention was fully focused on Artemis and her new affinity.
While Jason tried to calm down Spyro, Artemis decided to join the fray as she started to almost scream at Spyro, who couldn't help but feel offended the moment she appeared inside the soul world, proactively leaving the mana core to lecture it.
A fight was about to break out in his soul world, and Jason felt as if he was a grown-up trying to resolve a kid fight as he pulled Artemis back to his mana core, while reassuring Spyro that they would try to figure out its capabilities together.
Fortunately, the fight ended with his intervention, but Jason realised that the more soulbonds he had, the less he would use some of them actively.
For example, on Argos, he had mostly used Solaris in order to fight his opponents.
Meanwhile, right now, Solaris' flame was simply too weak to even cope with Jason's advancement speed that was tremendously high.
Even after enhancing the soul world to the highest possible capabilities, his soulbonds were unable to solidify four prismarine crystals in the time Jason solidified one unique prismarine crystal.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})As such, Jason would always be faster and much stronger than them!
This was the biggest change Jason underwent since he could actively use his extremely high mana mastery to cultivate, with a strong cultivation technique by his side.
It was devastating for his soulbonds but Jason had no other choice but to continue cultivating with such a rapid speed because his strength was not even remotely close to what he wanted to reach in the near future.
There were too many powerhouses who were much stronger than he was, and even if his cultivation speed was terrifyingly high, he was already 20 years old!
If he were to face higher races, he wouldn't even be considered a prodigy to have 3 solidified prismarine crystals at the age of 20.
As such, he couldn't even remotely compare himself to his prodigious peers, if he were to encounter them.
At least if one would only judge someone's prowess from a cultivation base alone.
There were other things one had to pay attention to as well, such as the foundation of one's cultivation, and other traits, but Jason knew that he was not strong enough yet!
Because of that, he didn't want to slow down his cultivation speed, which made his soulbonds uncomfortable.
Every single loosened seal made Jason stronger and consequently turned them less useful to him.
And now that he had a combat prowess comparable to someone with more than 14 solidified prismarine crystals even without their enhancement, Jason was like a monstrous existence in the wild!
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})In the end, his soul energy was not a problem at all, and there was only one fear his soulbonds had, which Jason began to realise once again- their anxiety of becoming useless and unimportant to him.
This made him recall Scorpio, who had sacrificed himself, thinking that he was of no use to Jason, and had sacrificed his life to protect Jason, one last time.
Shaking his head, Jason realised that he had to find a way to allow his soulbonds to increase their strength even faster than their current speed.
Artemis' speed to cultivate should now be on par with his, possibly even higher, but that was exactly how it was ought to be.
He didn't care about binding hundreds of beasts to his soul. Rather he wanted every single beast to be able to reveal its highest capabilities and support him in achieving his goals.
At the same time, he wanted them to feel comfortable with each other, and not like any of them was stealing a spot in Jason's heart which made him love the others less, a thing that was never going to happen.
All of his soulbonds were important to him, and his decision to bind a new soulbond was always well thought, and accompanied by a good gut feeling!
Because of that, Jason didn't like the way both Spyro and Artemis were trying to be possessive, while Solaris and Petri were merely observing the scuffle in excitement as if it had nothing to do with them.
It was a ridiculous sight, but Jason couldn't feel like laughing, at all.
As such, he had to think of a solution to prevent such a scenario in the near future, but before that, Jason wanted to figure out the true capabilities of Artemis' evolution. With that thought in mind, he initiated the fusion with her just as the Guardian of the 11th Floor emerged from the gate.
Weirdly enough, it was another Cyclops that had the exact same cultivation base as the one he killed before.
This confused Jason, and if there hadn't been a slight alteration in the Cyclops' energy fluctuations, Jason would have believed that it was the exact same opponent.
However, only a moment later, Jason realised that the energy fluctuations were not the only thing that had changed.
Rather, it was the only thing he could directly perceive, only for Jason to feel targeted by a strong killing intent.
Afterward, the gravitational force around him increased a moment later, and it was then that his Emperor Eyes perceived the highly concealed affinity of the Cyclops.
'Gravitation!' He realised with a start, only to finalise his fusion with Artemis.
Black and silver-colored horns grew out of his forehead, the hair all over his body turned silver, and majestic wings sprouted out of his back.
At the same time, the Celestia aura turned icy cold, altered by Artemis' fusion.
A second stigma manifested upon Jason's first stigma, and his golden-silverish eyes turned sky-blue with a distinct silver glint in them.
The Cyclops noticed every single change that occurred within Jason, but ignoring all of it, the Cyclops emerged in front of Jason. It increased the gravitational force further, before slashing out without any mercy.
Yet, just at the same moment, Jason moved as tremendous surges of energy were released by him.
The entire surrounding froze in an instant and his eyes stared right into the Cyclops' soul as Jason said one simple word.
"Freeze!"
__________________