Jason had to face the harsh reality even if it was hard to accept.
He felt as if his whole world had come crumbling down like the house of cards. He wasn't that ambitious to get a heaven-defying soulbond as his first bond but a one-star wild beast????!!? Even the worst Novice ranks were able to defeat them and such a beast would become his lifelong partner?
Adept ranks were able to defeat the strongest five-star wild beast without much effort as their physique alone was much stronger than these beasts. Now, Jason would only be able to form a soulbond with a newborn one-star wild beast at the most?... He couldn't believe his ears but somehow he knew that this wasn´t a lie, just his fate which was cruel and disheartening.
The old man didn't try to sugarcoat his words and had been direct and clear with him. Though the old man had pitied Jason´s situation, he knew that the youth had to overcome this crisis alone.
He believed that this situation wasn´t the worst outcome at all as he had seen many youths with a soul that could only hold one soulbond in total with a soul energy only slightly stronger than that of Jason.
Having the advantage of possessing many beasts with the disadvantage of an extremely weak beast for a start was better than the former unfortunate ones.
The old man was firmly convinced that the young man in front of him wasn't ordinary as Jason´s eyes seemed to be special in his opinion.
Otherwise, the old man couldn´t understand why there was so much mana assembled around his eyes.
The old man then changed the topic and announced
"Let's go to the beast hatchery where both of you can choose your first soulbond."
Everyone inside the room nodded their heads and followed him outside while Jason stood rooted to the spot for a minute before he noticed everyone had begun to move and he stood up.
He walked down the altar lifelessly.
Greg saw this and ran to him asking "Hey dude, are you okay?"
Obviously, Jason wasn't doing fine but he forced a smile and said "Yeah, of course."
Jason wasn't sure why Greg was worried about him but he didn't care about that at the moment.
The old man walked past the two youths who noticed him and followed meekly.
Greg had to support Jason a little while Greg´s family followed both of them rather quietly.
His mother whispered "How unfortunate… I´ve never seen such a beautiful and large soul….Honey, do you think he will be able to overcome the problem with his weak soul energy somehow? I can't think of any good solution except forming a contract with a good potential soulbond or practicing the Heaven's Hell technique for many years until it shows results.
But, finding a beast with potential among one-star wild beasts is more unlikely than finding a needle in a haystack, even for us! We can't even help him during the whole beast selection process... Another solution would be increasing his rank but this would also take a long time even with resources."
The man answered after thinking for a short moment "Other than forming a contract with a high potential beast, ranking up and practicing the Heaven's Hell technique over a long time, he would have to find high-graded magical treasures. They could increase one's soul energy but other than being extremely rare they also cost a fortune.
I don't think we would be able to afford one with our whole fortune even if our son had a soul like this youth has… It's a pity to lose a promising soul like that to such weak soul energy.
If he works hard maybe he can form a second soulbond in a few years but honestly, I wouldn't be confident in doing something like that."
While Greg supported Jason, Jason´s mind was busy thinking about his huge soul world the whole time.
Other than being disappointed, Jason had to acknowledge the fact that his soul looked really beautiful and magnificent, while the golden color was able to calm him down as he looked around... This however made his heart hurt even more because his soul energy was too weak and he wasn't sure what to do with it...
But he didn't want to cry and instead wanted to find a solution to his problem.
Crying wouldn't help him but solving the problem definitely would.
Relieving himself from Greg´s support, Jason straightened his back while thinking about the possible solutions but there weren't many.
Purchasing a high-graded magical treasure was out of his options as they were way too expensive and forming a contract with a high potential one-star wild beast relied on his luck.
Approximately hundreds of stairs later, they entered another room that was even more gigantic than the soul-awakening hall.
But this place wasn't as quiet as the one they had been in just a short while ago. Jason, who could only see slightly through the bandage because of his blood, was astonished to see thousands of colors radiating from eggs and small beasts inside small landscapes filled with faint mana.
His head began to ache again and Jason turned off his eyes' effect which saw the radiating color of beasts.
Wanting to experiment, he activated the effect of his eyes. The second he did that, Jason noticed that some beasts radiated a stronger color than others even if they were from the same race.
`What does that mean?` was what Jason thought but he couldn't find a solution.
As he thought about the effect, Jason looked around again, turning off the effect yet again..
He stopped for a moment and a second later, he noticed the mana fluctuations of a wolf mother with five cubs sitting next to her.
That was, at least, what Jason could see based on the mana flow. He turned on the effect for a short moment and began to analyze the cubs thoroughly.
The wolf had given birth to all five cubs but Jason noticed that the radiating color was different for two of the cubs.
While three cubs had the same color, the fourth one was more distinct and denser but essentially the same color. The fifth cub had a completely different color which was even denser compared to the fourth.
Many thoughts ran through Jason's head as Greg and the old man noticed his behavior.
The old man explained,
"This is a blazing horned wolf mother with its five cubs. It's an evolved ranked beast.
Two of the five cubs are slightly special. One has inherited a slightly superior bloodline, while the other cub underwent a mutation which made it stronger."
Greg listened carefully as this information could be useful for his choice.
"Can you show me which one sir thinks is the stronger one out of these two special cases?"
Jason asked Greg for help which confused him while the old man smiled faintly.
The old man knew that Jason had unique eyes since the beginning as he had seen many humans with special traits. He believed that Jason had simple mana eyes which could see that one beast had slightly stronger mana radiating from it.
A small stream of mana left Greg's body and Jason saw a finger formed of mana pointing at the cub with the superior bloodline.
But, Jason's eyes told him a different story.
His eyes or rather the radiating color told him that the mutated cub had a denser color and a "Why?" escaped his lips before he could take it back.
The old man was still calm and explained.
"Having a superior bloodline indicates the high possibility to evolve into higher ranked beasts while having a mutation can backfire. Some mutations are powerful while other mutations are harmful to certain aspects.
Furthermore, mutations can evolve when the cub grows stronger and in this case, the cub's mutation is still in its initial phase. Though it's not seen as a very good mutation it could further mutate in a bad way. "
"Ahh" Jason and Greg exclaimed at the same time.