When the group of six gathered, Jason wondered how everyone's distribution would look like. 

The only thing their small group really clarified was that everyone would receive shares according to their contribution.

As such, he doubted that he would obtain anything from any beast they killed, even though he would be the reason for the expedition team to prevent meeting any large groups or stronger beasts if possible.

If he didn't need their protection, Jason would have already retaliated, but that was unfortunately the case.

However, once he found a treasure, he would obtain a piece of the cake.

In the end, Jason´s plan did not rely on his team´s share and he wanted to do something else if possible.

But to do this, he had to know more about his surroundings, while Artemis next to him was slightly problematic.

While waiting for his soul energy to reach Artemis' demand in order to let her rest inside his soul world, he had to wait which was extremely frustrating, because relying on strangers and Malia was not something Jason liked.

Unfortunately, he couldn´t change this matter for now and was forced to do exactly what he didn´t want to do. 

Trusting strangers with his life on the line!

What if there was a dispute about some treasures or how to distribute them? Did everyone trust each other so much to think that they wouldn't be betrayed?

In the last few months, Jason already witnessed two large beast tides and humanity´s selfishness, which was not something to be proud of and it caused him to be more careful with his demands.

But only after Old Drake´s words he understood that he acted naively in telling others about his mana eyes with its special characteristics.

Right now, he had Shane to rely on but what if other big clans from Canir were to search him because of his ability to detect high-potential beasts? Could Shane really save him from every danger around him?

Definitely not and Jason wanted to become stronger, the faster the better and he could only do so, by venturing through the valley, alone at best without Artemis or anyone else.

This was only thanks to the concealment technique he memorized throughout the last few days and Jason was already able to suppress his mana fluctuations to a certain degree, while some at his rank or one stage above should not be able to clearly determine his strength if they were to focus on him. 

With this, he could at least walk through the outskirts of the valley, without any unblemished beast caring about his existence.

Why would an unblemished beast care about a living being with weak mana fluctuations at the Adept/awakened rank? 

If these beasts were not starving for months, everything should be fine!

Once their group decided where to go, Lin walked towards the torn apart forest guardian with a sad expression as he said.

"If only my second soulbond would be a forest guardian…" sighing, he stored it away, before he turned back to the expedition group, that silently nodded its head.

Forest Guardians were special existences and their most special feature was its mana core. 

They lived within a small society with less than ten individuals while their race, form, size, and potential varied, with most forest guardians being humanoid beasts with veins, leaves, and moss covering them, while they had thick horns on their forehead.

Most of them looked elegant, but that was less important because their mana core could be described to be life itself

Not only was their mana core extremely complex and with thin intersections connected, but the transmuted mana within its mana core was able to regenerate severed limbs, diseases, and severe injuries. 

Alone through this ability, forest guardians were seen as extremely valuable soulbonds not many humans had, while newborn forest guardians were an even rarer sight, because of their low fertility rate.

In the end, Jason also wanted such a soulbond, because a healing ability was always helpful, but the main issue was, that his soul energy was too low, while he had more than enough soulbonds to take care of for the moment.

If nothing serious would happen, Scorpio would finish his evolution soon, while Artemis would become even stronger without him knowing what rank her current race could reach.

'Well, I can think of these problems later…' Jason told himself, as he led their small expedition team around the outskirts close to their plateau, while carefully avoiding larger beast groups.

They made a lunch break to ease their tension, in which Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell third level, increasing his soul energy by a large margin, while the others absorbed mana, ate something, or talked about the ancient ruins.

Fighting many smaller beast groups, Jason began to notice an important synergy between a few members.

While Jennifer and Theo trusted each other completely, Lin seemed to be the one who was the closest to Lux.

Malia was friendly with all of them but somehow Jason thought she was alone, causing him to walk towards her in order to talk with her.

He trusted Malia the most from their group and from their small dispute earlier at the highland plateau, he also knew that Jennifer and Lin were rather greedy, while Theo acted level-headed. 

The only one he couldn´t understand at all was Lux, who went along with everything the others said as if it had nothing to do with him.

It was uncomfortable to look into his eyes, but when Jason stared into them intently, there was a feeling more than discomfort within him, as if Lux was hiding or suppressing something.

When it was late at night, Jason searched for a good spot to build their tents as the distance between the plateau to their current position increased quite a lot.

Jason doubted that anyone would sleep with such a high mana density around them which was perfect to absorb mana, as they divided their expedition team into three groups of two

In a rotation system, every group would have to do night duty in order to ensure everyone's safety.

The Daer siblings were group one while Lin and Lux as the second group.

Jason was fine with Malia in his group and couldn't find any problem with that, while Malia seemed slightly nervous. 

'Is it her first time doing something like that?' Jason wondered, without understanding a young girl's feelings at all.

In the evening, before eating dinner, he practiced one again the Heaven's Hell technique, before he began to feast on the dishes in front of him.

Everyone ate together in order to thicken their relationship but seeing Jason eating so fast, seemingly without chewing, the group became restless with the thought that they would have to absorb mana with an empty stomach.

Not eating anything for a few days or a week was not important at the Master rank but everyone liked to eat delicious meals causing them to glare at Jason who looked like he wasted precious, tasty food without savoring it at all.

Time slowly passed and everyone finished their dinner, while Jason took out more and more cold dishes from his spatial device to continue eating, as his stomach rumbled.

'Is he still hungry?!' Everyone looked at Jason in shock, while he ate one dish after another until he was finally satiated.

While everyone was shocked, Lux asked 

"Are you practicing the third level of the Heaven´s Hell technique?" without any meaning, behind which Jason only nodded his head.

Finally understanding the reason for Jason´s appetite, everyone nodded their head, before their eyes widened 

"Wasn't your soul-awakening only a few months ago? How can your soul energy already be so pure and condensed to endure being formed into a drill!?" Jennifer exclaimed excitedly while approaching Jason extremely close, causing him to gulp before sweat began to form on his temples.