23 Unexpected Reward

Jason accepted the call almost immediately as Greg's face suddenly appeared on the holographic screen.

"Hey Jason, how are you doing?" Greg looked happy and Jason wondered what the cause was.

"Hi Greg, I'm still practicing the Azure feisty Ape technique with the dagger modification. Why are you so happy?"

Jason was curious as he heard his cheerful voice so he asked straightforwardly.

"Hehe, I have some news for you. Which one do you want to hear first? The good one or the super-duper extreme nice one?"

It was weird to see Greg so happy as he seemed to have a rather cold personality previously. `Maybe this is his real character` Jason thought.

"Well, maybe the good one first?"

"Ohh boring... Well ok, then we go in this order.

The good news is that I was able to receive permission for your Heaven's Hell technique.

The super-duper extreme nice news involves your bad grades... Hehehe. As you might know, I'm going to move to Cyro-city and you might know that I don't have many friends..

Furthermore, I know that you would love to go to high-school in order to learn more about martial arts, beasts, wild zones, and many more things.

Also, the resources provided by high-school are much better which is probably also a reason for your wish to attend high school, if I am not wrong.

Throughout the last few days, I nagged my parents and told them that they owe you a favor because of their prejudice against you and my first soulbond with it´s lesser minotaur bloodline. So they gave me permission to use our newly obtained nobility rights if you fulfill certain requirements. Isn't that nice? Hahaha."

Jason wasn't sure what to think of Greg's revelation.

Receiving the Heaven's Hell technique was almost a blessing in disguise for him, but he wasn't sure what Greg wanted to tell him about the nobility rights.

He wasn't even sure what these rights were.. and since when was Greg a noble?!?

Jason was way too confused and bombarded him with several questions as he stared at the screen in a daze.

"Huh? What about your nobility right? I don't know anything about the rights of the nobles.. and what requirements? Explain please?!"

Greg smiled proudly. He was eager to share the details with Jason and tried to answer his questions to the best of his ability.

"We know that you´re way too weak right now, but the reason I want to use my nobility rights is pretty simple. You´ll get to attend the affiliated school of the Vanguard school that I'll attend.

Isn't that nice?

I'm not a Nobel by birth, but we have more assets and credits than most small nobles on Astrix. Also, recently my mother was assigned the title of a minor noble because of her contributions to mankind. Thus, I am automatically a noble of the second generation by bloodline.

Through this, our family is able to allow someone, in this case, you, to refer a student to get enrolled to the affiliated school with my mother's connections. Thus, you'll be able to attend the school with me. Unfortunately, that wouldn't exempt you from the rules of the Vanguard School which is the main school I'll attend.

While I´ll be enrolling in the main school, you will get admitted to one of its affiliated schools.

Now, let us move to the small issue.

Many rich merchants tried to bribe nobles in the past so that these nobles would use their nobility's right to allow their children to get admitted to the prestigious A-grade schools.

The Vanguard school reserves some seats for students to get admitted through this 'nobility's right quota' and accepts them into the affiliated school during the first year. 

However, that is where the privilege given to such students ends. The performance of such candidates is monitored for a year. If the students fail to fulfill certain criteria such as reaching the required strength, merit points, and other requirements, he/she will get thrown out immediately notwithstanding anyone´s nobility right and whatsoever.

Furthermore, I had to promise my parents a few things so that they accepted you but that can´t be considered a problem.

The main problem is that you have to pass their `small` test.

If you pass their test you can come to Cyro-city with us and attend the Vanguard affiliated school, one of the most prestigious schools in Astrix, even with your bad practical exam results.

Ahhhh, wait… as for your exam results...you have to get your blindness remark removed. Otherwise even the nobility right can't help you apply to the school.

My mother assumed that you have 'special trait' eyes, and if you get a special certification for the same, you might receive some extra credentials for your application."

Jason listened to him carefully though it was still a lot of information to process in one go. Greg took a deep breath before he continued again.

"Now, let's move back to my parent's test, shall we?

Because they know your mana core's rank and your former blindness, they were fairly lenient in my opinion. Thus, for you to be considered by my parents for the 'nobility right' recommendation, they have set you up a task. You only have to defeat either a one-star awakened beast or five five-star wild beasts in 3 weeks, without using mana pistols, rifles, and so on.

Isn't that nice?"

Jason was still confused about what was going on, but getting to know that he might be able to attend a prestigious school in an A-grade city heightened his mood.

Even if he was at the bottom of the education pyramid in this school, Jason would have better chances to soar into the sky. Instead of staying within the C-grade city, without knowing for sure that he could attend a decent high school there, Greg's offer sounded exciting.

And his strength would be at the lowest level everywhere so he didn't really mind that at the moment.

But to attend this school or even go to an A-grade city, Jason had to rely on Greg´s family which wasn't really what Jason looked forward to.

Nevertheless, it was a great opportunity that would not come around every day and Jason thought of a saying.

'Sometimes one has to take a step back before making a big jump!

After listening to the stated requirements, Jason thought for a moment before he cursed Greg´s parents in his mind. He was pitifully weak, had almost zero combat prowess and his mana core rank was low to put it nicely.

`Nice my foot!!!` 

If he were to put in enormous effort to defeat five-star wild beasts he should be able to somehow do it, but it would be extremely dangerous.

`Probably?` At least, that was what Jason hoped for.

Right now, Jason felt confident about fighting some weaker wild beasts as his understanding of the dagger-modified Azure feisty ape technique had deepened.

In 3 weeks, Jason was confident to reach the 4th Novice stage and with some tricks, he might be able to fight against five-star wild beasts, which any sane youth would only dare to do at the 8th or 9th Novice stage with some company and good equipment.

But fighting head-on with such a beast would be suicidal for Jason right now.

Unfortunately, his chances would only increase slightly through the next few weeks and he had to think of a plan to survive an attack from the five-star wild beasts.

Jason and Greg chatted for nearly an hour as both were in a good mood, while Jason was deep in thought as his mind was going crazy thinking of all the possibilities.

After the call ended, Jason continued to practice his martial art technique.

As he watched some other videos about the Azure feisty ape technique, Jason found out that the mastery of martial art technique was divided into different parts which also applied to weapons and elemental mastery.

These classifiers were called basic mastery, familiar mastery, experienced mastery, profound mastery, and perfect mastery.

There was a combination of different techniques beyond perfect mastery but not many did this as it would waste too much time.

Following the description of the videos Jason saw, he figured out that he had reached the basic mastery of the Azure feisty Ape technique.

Nevertheless, Jason wasn't sure how good this was as he had nobody to compare with.

The only thing he knew was that the Azure feisty Ape was one of the weakest martial arts techniques of the federation, which was also the reason that it was free for everyone to learn.

He understood that the next three weeks were extremely important for him in order to increase his combat prowess and experience by hunting weaker wild beasts before he dared to fight against five-star wild beasts.

Jason had to face real beasts in order to get used to them.

This was why Jason decided to head into the one-star wild zone next to the city, as soon as possible.

It was a plain, infested by many kinds of wild beasts and it was mainly used as a training ground for Novice ranks.

These trainees were the most dangerous threat to them, as awakened beasts would be killed as soon as they were found inside the borders of a one-star wild zone to keep the new generation safe.

Jason's physique had reached a normal level and the signs of a malnourished body were beginning to fade away as his weak and fragile build was starting to sport its first muscles. He was starting to look like a normal and average youth of his age rather than a weak and sickly boy.

He had grown a few centimeters in height as well and was now 1.63 meters tall which was the common height for a 13-year-old youth who was nearing the age of 14.

Except for receiving the files about the Heaven's Hell soul technique, nothing special had happened that day. Jason finished his practice as usual and went for a long jog in the park.

After returning home, he ate something he washed up, and crawled into the bed with a satisfied smile on his face.