Jason woke up the next morning not do fresh as before. His night was plagued with thoughts of what would have happened to his parents if he died and never came back. And also why he easily talked with Je-Amus a god, probably because he was Davis. He also considered if he took his death too lightly, well thoughts for another time. He took up a newspaper by news today left under his door " Narla must have put it there for me " he thought.
' NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL CAUGHT '
' As known to everyone, Maxmus Riverdale the notoriously sly criminal escaped from prison on the 16th of March. This was caused by carelessness on the part of the prison guards allowing a member of the black sea water take shift guarding Maxmus. In response to his escape, the scouts guild set up scouts to take positions around the house of Thomas Nican. They suspected he was going to be Maxmus's first target as he was Maxmus's unsuccessful last before he was caught.
Maxmus on the night of the 16th arrived at the Nican's family house and a fight ensued between the scouts and him. Maxmus evaded the scouts at the house gate after getting badly injured by the first scouts batch. On arrival into the house, he was engaged by three scouts and finally stopped by Gate. Gate was the scout tasked with the protection if the family. Gate fought Maxmus to a standstill. Maxmus still was no pushover even though he was badly injured. Gate held him long enough for the SS to arrive. But, Maxmus made move against Angel the Nican's family last daughter. " She would have died of not for Bishop's timely intervention " Gate told news today. Bishop one of the scouts who engaged Maxmus pushed him in time to divert a thrown knife at the girl. Maxmus deserted his mission and ran away, but the hand of the SS brought him back to prison. '
' THE EYE ' This heading caught Jason's attention immediately he flipped the page.
' Upon further investigation, Maxmus was sent by the Black sea water to retrieve a relic called the eye which was in the possession of Thomas Nican. Thomas Nican reportedly bought this relic at the capital. It is said to possess extraordinary powers, but this fact lacks credit as of the moment. " If only I was able to kill one of the family members, then the Nicans would have handed us the eye " Maxmus confesed under intense torture. The eye as confirmed by the mage guild has no historical background but seems to be something powerful. " It is good this thing did not fall in the wrong hands, we however have no idea what sort of item this is " Mage Bellatrix Teriln said. The relic however has been confiscated by the scouts guild for safe keeping '
" The eye huh? " Jason thought. " If it has no historical background, then is there an actual need for me to check it out on the library? " He flipped the papers to the next page and began to read the news portrayed there.
' NEMESIS RETURN CLOSE - THE ARRIVAL OF EVALUATORS '
' Two days to go before the evaluators arrive in Benign. According to the council members, evaluation which began four days ago is near completion. " All sectors of economy is being stabilized. Ties with other towns are being strengthened and GDP is increasing. By tommorow, the council should be done with evaluation " Lucius Jaliel says.
" For all who don't know, the evaluators are devaluators in the making, we therefore seek general cooperation to prevent another detier. We've experienced difficulties stabilizing the economy because people refused to cooperate with us for fear of being closed down. But we have prevailed " Barbara Mcgonagall says.
Jason threw the paper by his bedside table. That was all he wanted to see this morning. " Argh!! " he groaned gripping his abdomen in pain. He felt a sharp stab there. " What the hell? " . The pain suddenly became increasingly unbearable. He dropped on the floor by his bed and rolled around in pain grunting with every passing second. " If this was what Davis said about the energy, he should have just let me die. Why... thi... s so.. o.. n " The pain spread up to his chest, arms and legs. He became stiff after a while but the pain continued. Stemming from his abdomen, a searing heat spread to his entire body like as if his abdomen was a power core.
" What's wrong with you? " Narla asked bursting into the room annoyed at his disturbing noise. Her face suddenly washed with confusion when she saw Jason on the floor grunting. She knelt down beside him and tried to raise him up, this gesture was responded to by a sharper groan from Jason.
" Should I call mum? " Narla asked him frantically. Jason responded to this with a low no. " Just stay aside for now " he commanded. Narla heeded to this grudgingly only after Jason gave her a commanding stare.
Ten minutes later, Jason sat up. His eyes were wet with tears. " This was the result of my body greedily drawing energy from Je-Amus? " Jason asked himself. " I'm okay " he said to Narla, " I would like to be alone now " he added.
Narla looked angry " You were on the floor for some minutes in pain screaming like a child, and you say you are alright all of a sudden? "
" Narla, I would like to be alone " Jason said raising his voice a little higher " And please, don't tell anyone ". Narla hissed and walked away from the room banging the door fiercely behind her.
Jason retrieved the book Davis gave him in the secret room and began to read. " It says go into culturing stance ..... what is even a culturing stance " Luckily for him, the book integrated pictures for direction probably for users like him. He crossed his two legs and tried to sit, but it was impossible. He then proceeded to sit first and then cross his legs which was more successful. " That's better ".
" Concentrate " the book read. " Why must it always be concentrate? " Jason muttered. It took fifteen minutes of struggle to shut off all his thoughts and concentrate on his abdomen region. The book didn't tell him where to concentrate on, but his intellect directed him. Direct your energy to the point of intersection. " What is the point of intersection? " Jason wondered. " This manual could really do better with a beginner's guide " he thought. He began to focus really hard on his abdomen from where the pain originated from. At first, it felt like he was doing nothing until he felt something move within him.
" Huh? " he gasped. The brief distraction, caused him to start all over. He began to concentrate again, and he felt it. Although he couldn't see it, from the feeling, he could imagine it sort of or see it. A tingle was felt around his body. In his body, be saw white dots like liquid. They were flowing through his blood following the stream. Few minutes later and all Jason could see was only the white.
Going downwards towards his abdomen, he saw s black smoke gathered there. Thin strands of this black smoke had spread to his body but the white was more abundant. Jason then began to will the white energy to move, surprisingly it did but slowly. He again wanted it to move and it began to move faster, now he really really wanted it to move and it gushed like a stream from all parts of his body towards the black smoke. The black smoke sent it's own stream at the incoming white and both energies clashed. Jason pushing his mind to the brink willed on the white energy and more added to it pushing the black. The black slowly being pushed back fused in with the white, but Jason would have none of that. He pushed on till cracks appeared on the black smoke in it's process of fusing.
" Your body now needs to balance that energy in you.... " Davis's voice emerged in his mind. " No destroy it " Jason thought " Oh no, what am I doing? " He hadn't even bothered to completely read the instructions before starting the culture. " Now, I'm on my own ".
The black smoke was on the verge of breaking, Jason knew he didn't have long. He focused on the black smoke now as he has on the white energy ad and it began to mend it's cracks. He pushed back the white energy s d it took it's place once again. " Not this " . Jason focused on the white again overcoming the black. For a long time, he struggled trying to balance the energies in his body until it was done. A grey ball was formed in his abdomen and as quickly as it was formed, it washed over his entire body multiple times eliciting a chilling feeling. The energy flowing in his body was neither white nor black but grey.
A refreshing feeling washed over Jason again. He fell to the floor besides his bed. His entire body enveloped in sweat as if he jumped into a lake. Around the end of his entire body, grey aura like fire was visible.
" Whoa! " Jason shouted. " When did this appear? " Jason thought. The aura around him looked like fire, something he had seen about the fire ability, only that this was grey. His curtain swirled as if it was being blown by the wind. He felt indescribably light. " I guess, I'll have Davis or Narla to thank for this, keeping Melissa away was nice ".
He hurried to the bathroom, took a quick bath and dressed up casually. He had only gone halfway to the door when he suddenly felt depleted. The grey on his body was no longer there and he felt sapped.
" What is happening? " Jason thought " I'll have to talk to Davis after this during the evening, things are so weird. He lay down on the bed to try and regain his strength.
*******************
" Oh, Lucius and Ginevra, so good to see you " Melissa greeted as she opened the door for them to come in. Following behind her was Jake and Jill along with Kyle also a woman and man who she did no know.
" Great to see you too " Ginevra said to Melissa giving her a hug. " Is Jason around? " she asked politely.
" Oh, yes. He is around. Infact, he is upstairs in his room " Melissa said.
" Could you take to him? " Lucius said impatiently. Melissa nodded and escorted them upstairs to Jason's room door. " He was very angry the day he came and he explained everything to me " Melissa said.
Lucius inhaled sharply and his voice croaked as his words came out " Oh.. is that so? "
" I don't mean anything wrong but I think the scouts guild gives Jason a particular satisfaction that he saw you planned on taking away from him " Melissa said.
" I agree with her " Jack said " And like I said before we came here, let's agree with Jason on this ".
" I've made up my mind before coming here.... I will not stop Jason from being a scout if he wants to continue, I will back him up, but I'm here to take him home " Lucius said.