BXBX NOVEL Chapter 54 - Speed!
After a few minutes, one could see the dome and the truck drove through the dome without getting obstructed in any kind of way.
What then happened astonished Jason extremely, because Mark pressed a button on the mainboard causing the truck to ascend slightly.
The advanced anti-gravitational magic-circles were shining brightly and Jason saw that they reached the limit of their ability when the hovering truck reached a height of around 3 meters.
Next to Mark was a holographic screen with a detailed map of Astrix and a few large grey spots could be seen on it.
The whole Island was divided into many different areas which were probably wild-zones.
Each of these areas was marked with a certain amount of black stars and Jason thought that one star was probably the indicator for a one-star wild zone because they were driving through the one-star plains while the map said they drove through a are that was labeled with a single black star.
Jason found it interesting as he looked through the whole map which was filled with many different kinds of landscapes.
Mana was capable of many things and since the mana outbreak mana environments in some areas changed completely.
It didn′t matter anymore where the equator was or how far away one is from the sun compared to other places, the temperature and environment was almost completely dependent on the surrounding mana and natural-born treasures.
Magical treasures are able to change the whole environment with their radiating mana, even after the treasure was discovered and collected, the remains would cause the environment to continue transforming.
It was still unknown how exactly the environment changed, but there were a few theories, like it was with everything new.
Astrix′s north was filled with many white spots while in the center of the island was a huge volcano.
Jason knew that right now their position was relatively close to the ice fields but more east and they would travel closer to the volcano to enter Cyro city which was somehow between the volcano and the northern ice fields.
But Jason was also astonished to see that except for the few empty areas, the strongest area was a single red star while one to four black stars represented the corespondent wild zone.
He concluded that the strongest zones were thus a magical beast zone.
Thinking about the empty gray areas, Jason concluded that stronger beasts must live there while humans didn\'t dare or maybe cared to venture through it.
While Jason was in thoughts about what kinds of beast could be higher than magical beasts, the hovering truck accelerated its speed to an astonishing speed.
It reached more than 300km/h and once Jason looked through the window, he almost shrieked out in shock
`Isn\'t that too dangerous?!?!`
But apparently, they flew a detour and avoided areas with huge hills, big rocks and certain types of trees.
`With this speed, we still need two days until we arrive at Jiro city?? And Mark said they have to drive through the night….`
Malia and Greg didn\'t mind the hovering trucks\' speed and absorbed mana from small mana stones or read some files on their holographic screen.
Jason noticed that and decided to not mind the truck anymore and to absorb mana for himself.
Taking out a mana stone Artemis noticed that and she tried to grab it, which Jason prevented.
He took out five five star wild beast cores and told her to eat them and digest them.
If she was done he would give her an awakened beast core which made her happy and Jason wanted to test out if there was a difference in the conversion rate between her digestion because the amount of mana was the same for five five-star wild beast cores and a low-awakened beast core.
Artemis was not satisfied with the wild beast\'s cores and annoyed Jason, forcing him to give her the mana stone but he was resolute.
A few minutes later Jason finally convinced Artemis and she gulped down the cores before she went into the soul world to digest them.
Meanwhile, Jason made himself ready to absorb mana out of the mana stones.
He hoped that he would be able to break into the 5th Novice-rank either today or the day after.
Closing his eyes he loosened up a mana thread from the mana stone in his hand, leading it into him.
After circling it through his mana channels, he inserted them in his mana core.
Hours passed and unknown to Jason, it was already lunchtime.
While the landscapes changed the truck drove through them like it was nothing.
Not a single beast could be seen and this was probably because of the beast repellent used on the truck and its scary appearance.
They only drove through one three-star wild zones and not a single beast could harm them if they were confident enough to try it.
Surprisingly Artemis woke him up at 2 pm and she had already digested five five-star cores which was quite impressive.
He had thought that she would at least need a day to digest them completely but not even half of the estimated time passed.
Jason\'s stomach grumbled and he decided to eat something.
Everyone would eat something when they were hungry because the time needed to gather mana was more important and it could be quite serious to distract someone while absorbing it.
A mistake could lead to serious injuries.
This problem wouldn\'t occur with Artemis because he already felt that she was awake before she annoyed him and Jason finished absorbing the mana cleanly.
Jason was really astonished about the increased speed of his mana absorption rate with a mana stone and he felt that even if his mana core increased because of Artemis\'s sudden rise in her level, he would be able breakthrough tomorrow.
Before he ate something, he gave Artemis an awakened beast core and she gulped it down greedily.
Jason wondered if Artemis would eat up all his stocks if he did not control her, seeing her not being satisfied with the single-core.
Artemis entered his soul world dejected and Jason followed her to practice the Heaven\'s Hell technique.
After 20 minutes he was already done and left the soul world once again.
Looking outside Jason noticed that the scenario changed slightly and to his left the whole area was filled with lush and blossoming plants and wildlife while the right side was rather scarce.
Looking at the map Jason noticed that to his right side was a three-star wild zone next to a one-star magical winter field zone while to his left was a two-star zone next to a large swampland.
He couldn\'t distinguish many features because of the hovering trucks\' extreme speed but there was no way to miss certain enormous trees with a size of at least a hundred meters.