The first day with all Vanguard schools challenging each other went smoother than Jason thought and the `first wave` as their teacher called it, was extremely boring for him and Seron.

At the end of the school day, both he and Seron were only challenged one time before the rest of the challengers separated themselves in order to find someone else to challenge.

Jason´s combat prowess was unknown for them but his two elemental affinities hat to be at the evolved rank from two soulbonds in addition to his high proficiency with both of them.

As such Jason was a bad pick for anyone without a perfect elemental advantage or a great physique in order to overwhelm Jason with that.

Seron´s combat prowess was also odd but more easily to estimate than Jason´s as his physique seemed to be roughly at the 7th Adept rank.

What made Seron´s combat prowess estimation extremely difficult was the mysterious mana fluctuations within his body which increased his presence in the combat arena.

With that Seron seemed to have been able to produce an expert-ranked sword ray with enough mana reserves left in his mana pool to finish off his opponent within the thick fog that covered their sight.

In the end, it was a better choice from the surrounding affiliated Vanguard schools to pick other students as their prey in order to obtain a special combat class spot.

Without further ado, Jason and Seron were once again alone.

Both of them were disappointed that nobody else challenged them but it was only logical to pick the easier targets before the stronger ones would venture to them and challenge them and it would most likely only take some time before that would happen.

Jason predicted that the `first wave` was something like the beginning of the storm that allowed the first batch of students to challenge them because he hadn't seen any student from the main school.

It was rather boring, but Jason and Seron decided to observe the battles all around them in order to figure out if there was someone strong enough to threaten them but even that was somewhat disappointing after some time.

As such, they decided to spar against each other without using their affinities and abilities, as their physique and mana core size were roughly at the same rank.

Sparring against each other generated much more pressure as they knew each other's combat style which forced both of them to adjust their own unqiue combat style once in a while in order to win the sparring.

With that, both Jason and Seron adjusted their fighting style multiple times and increased their combat prowess slowly but steadily.

It was 5 pm when their teacher sent all of them home and Artemis jumped back on his shoulder before they left the school grounds once again.

Even though the first day of their all associated vanguard school challenges was rather disappointing, Jason was expectant towards the future and he knew that the true opponents would only come out in the later game if they couldn't enter a special combat class seat within the main school.

Obtaining a special combat class seat from the main vanguard school was only a matter of pride and not one seat within the affiliated school in addition to the main vanguard school had a single difference, neither advantage nor disadvantage.

But even if Jason was expectant of the future challenges, what was really important for him right now, was meeting his teachers once again after more than a month passed.

There were so many things he wanted to learn and his mind was filled with questions he asked himself when he read the masses of books.

Furthermore, when he forged, brewed, and inscribed for the first time, Jason was extremely dissatisfied with his result, even though the examiners saw that completely different.

Somehow, he thought of himself as a perfectionist with flaws.

Sometimes he wanted to do everything perfectly without anything going wrong, while other times he was perfectly fine with doing the bare minimum.

But the latter didn't apply for the lifestyle occupations, blacksmithing, alchemy, and rune inscribing, which Jason found extremely interesting.

From his first experience, he found out that it was extremely difficult to produce graded equipment as he could barely make something feasible but this difficulty fueled him with the desire for more.

As such the day passed silently with Jason arriving at the Fler´s house where Greg sat on the couch with a frustrated and dejected expression, only to jump up enraged.

Greg seemed injured and Jason figured out that his friend seemed to have been defeated during the first day of the special combat class lesson.

Jason already predicted such an outcome and it was already a wonder, that he was able to take a hold on his seat for so long, when he figured out what the `first wave´ his teacher called it, really meant.

Probably all top students challenged the seats of the special combat class from the main Vanguard school and Greg´s only advantage was the 9th Adept physique he received thanks to the high soul amplification from his mid-evolved soulbond.

In the end, his physique and above-average combat prowess was the only thing he had and Jason predicted that a similar scenario he himself created while fighting against the tall bulky youth was produced.

He couldn't really help out Greg and he had to find his flaws himself, in order to fix them.

In the end one could even say that Greg was extremely lucky because he had two soul worlds, giving him the opportunity to wield elements while reaching a terrifying amplification to his physique from non-elemental beasts.

Deciding to ignore Greg´s chaotic emotions that changed between being angry and sulky, Jason went into his room in order to read the advanced beastarium, before he practiced the Heaven's Hell technique.

After finishing his practice, Jason worked out, washed up, and continued reading for some time before he felt tired.

Sleeping in, with Artemis next to him, Jason felt free, without any worries.

**

Waking up early in the morning like everyday, Jason practiced the Heaven's Hell technique, before he worked out once again.

Washing up, Jason met Gabriella and Mark eating breakfast and he sat down with them after greeting them.

Gabriella and Mark were talking about the special combat class challenges, about Malia still being one of the seats after getting challenged a few times, while Greg lost his seat to an elemental affinity user with a mana core size of an Expert rank.

They involved Jason in their discussion by asking him multiple questions about the challenges within the 6th affiliated special combat class, but he couldn't really tell much as he wasn't actually observing many battles with great interest.

Greg and Malia were still absorbing mana, while Jason decided to go to school earlier than normal.

It was only 7 am, when he entered the school grounds and he immediately rushed towards the forest which only third-year students were allowed to venture in.

Jason couldn´t really understand why this was the case, but he just decided to ignore this rule, as he saw a large stone arch above a blue shimmering lake.

Without hesitating for a second, Jason covered his whole body in a mana membrane, before he jumped into the lake full of expectations, as his mana eyes detect something.