Anna was pointing towards a small building complex with a golden dragon embedded in its sign.

It was a trading company, and Jason didn't take long before he comprehended what Anna wanted to tell him.

She might have a different idea than what Jason's mind was forming, but he couldn't help but grin at the thought.

Without wasting any time, he cooked up a plan to be able to enter the fortress-like nurturing grounds.

Taking out the translated version of the neutral body refinement technique that had once belonged to the Doom Crawls, Jason smiled lightly.

In a shrewd move, he deliberately altered the content of a few paragraphs so as to  prevent others from refining their physique further than a certain threshold without causing any issues to the practitioners future body refinement

This threshold would allow the user to barely reach the first stage, but wouldn't allow advancing any further.

The Drake family shouldn't have obtained the translated neutral body refinement technique yet because the big clans had been careful in storing them away.

They had been extremely expensive to procure due to the ginormous price Jason had set up for his manuals, and it looked like this decision had opened a great opportunity for him.

Walking inside the golden-dragon trading firm, he noticed a young saleswoman approaching him with a bright smile.

"Good morning Sir, how may I help you?" 

Jason smiled back before he took out the manual he had translated.

"I heard that there is a nurturing ground for young prodigies of the Drake clan nearby. While fleeing from the last battle of the Great Argos war, I had many near-death experiences. Even so, I was able to procure something valuable! What I'm holding is one of the legendary neutral body refinement techniques that had been used by the Argos alliance!"

The saleswoman looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and frustration as she calmly replied,

"We have encountered many people trying to sell fake body refinement techniques to our trading firm. With that being said, you will have to prove that it's genuine!"

She awaited Jason to panic, but contrary to her expectations he just nodded his head and suggested,

"Copy the first five pages and practice it if you want. There shouldn't be much improvement in your physical strength with only one body refinement session, but you should be able to tell that this manual is not a fake copy"

Handing the dumbfounded woman the technique he added,

"Even if I sell the neutral body refinement technique, I have a condition. There are two members of the Drake alliance that I want to meet! They seem to have recently joined the Drake clan, but I can't simply show up and enter the fortress…even less with my little girl!" 

As long as the neutral body refinement manual was original, paying whatever price demanded wouldn't be a problem. It was possible to copy translated body refinement techniques after all!

There was no imprint of one's soul required to open the manual or any other restriction!

However, when the saleswoman heard the condition, she was shocked for the second time since meeting him.

"I'm sorry sir...but I can't really do anything about the Drake clan's policy…"

Jason just looked at the saleswoman as if he had expected her reply and said,

"Just relay my condition to someone who has enough authority to approve of my condition after evaluating the body refining manual.

The Drake clan should be able to fulfill such a small favor, otherwise, I won't sell the neutral body refinement technique. There is no loss for them, and I only want to see how my family is doing."

Before the saleswoman could reply, Jason heard the doorbell behind him ring as the automatic door opened behind him. The saleswoman bowed deeply to the person who had just entered the golden dragon trading company.

Turning around, Jason, who was holding Anna in his arms, saw a middle-aged man with the Drake clan's emblem embedded in the uniform he was wearing.

Scanning through the middle-aged man's mana core, Jason noticed that there were only 2,000 liquefied drops of mana inside.

As such, he could maintain his composure in front of the man, while bowing lightly, but was completely ignored by him.

"Did you acquire the information I wanted?" He asked the saleswoman who was still holding the translated manual of the Doom Crawls in her hand.

Nodding her head, she put the manual on the table in front of her before taking out several hand-written files.

There had to be important information, but Jason was not interested in it.

The middle-aged man seemed to be relatively young because he had the Drake clan's elite emblem instead of an ordinary emblem on his uniform.

When Jason noticed this, he figured out that this was probably the best chance he would've received.

"Do you really think that it will be impossible for me to meet my younger cousins in the nurturing fortress? I haven't seen them in years, and I doubt that the possibility of obtaining a fully translated neutral body refinement manual would be enough for you to permit me!" 

He could have come across as rude due to his sudden interruption, but Jason didn't bother about that right now.

Instead, his eyes were trained on the middle-aged man, who had just noticed him before his eyes flicked towards the body refinement manual on the table.

Picking it up, he read through the first few pages, without being able to stop for a single second.

Only after 20 minutes had passed did he lift his head to take a good look at Jason.

"Slightly more than 40 drops of liquefied mana...not bad. How old are you and where did you find this manual?"

Jason was overjoyed on the inside, but on the outside, he remained calm as he answered, 

"Despite looking young, I'm already in my mid-20s. Before the Great Argos war, I used to live on Astrix, and my talented cousins were allowed to enter the Drake clan. Unfortunately, my low-star soul awakening prevented me from following them.

As for the manual, I found it on a dead body of a powerhouse from the Argos alliance while fleeing from the last battle of the Great Argos war. I couldn't actively participate in the battle because I'm responsible for someone after all!"

Only now did the middle-aged man take a proper look at the little girl in Jason's hand before he nodded his head.

After that, his attention diverted to the neutral body refinement technique before he scratched the back of his head.

There were many things he had to pay attention to, but the most important was that the higher-ups had told him to nurture the new generation with his fullest capabilities.

The body refinement manual in his hand was one means to accomplish this, and Paul, the middle-aged man, asked himself whether he could trust the words of a stranger or not.

However, after considering that the young man had barely 42 drops of liquefied mana in his core and a baby girl in his hands, that was happily playing with him, he fell for Jason's trap.

Anna didn't show any signs of being abducted and Jason's technique looked genuine enough to him.

Thus, he couldn't pin Jason to the act of wanting to infiltrate the nurturing fortress, hence, Paul nodded his head in affirmation.

"I think that's not too much to ask for...All of us suffered because of the Great Argos war after all. Even if it might not look like that, not everyone wanted war…"

Despite looking cold, Jason thought that the middle-aged man was warm and kind.

In the end, he was just someone who had suffered as much as others, being used by the stronger.

Pain and agony were something everyone had witnessed through the Great Argos war as billions of beings had been victims of it!

Now, after the Great Argos war, they were even labeled as devils. Sadly, they couldn't retort anything to that accusation because it was nothing but the truth!

'How did the Drake clan only end up like that...it had been magnificent and a place one could be proud of…'

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