Not trying to attract too much attention from their surroundings, the four of them went into their tent, while Malia continued to cling onto Jason as if she would never let him go anymore which caused him to frown lightly.
But he felt it would be worse to get out of her grasp right now and as such, he decided to let her do as she wanted for the time being.
Jennifer and Theo looked at him, not knowing what to think because it was an astonishing feat to have survived the pursuit of a Magical ranked beast while being at the lower Adept rank.
Furthermore, almost two weeks passed since then and Jason looked like he didn't sustain a single injury, which was relieving.
Thinking about Lin and Lux's betrayal, both of them frowned and Theo sighed, as they entered the tent.
Once they were inside, the four of them sat down, before he gently loosened Malia's firm grip on his arm, because it began to hurt due to his weaker physique.
After he was freed again, Malia looked at him, as if she had been betrayed and Jason pondered for a moment, before he summoned Artemis.
'Can you consult her? You like carcasses, right? And you like Malia...please help me...okay?' He transmitted to her and Artemis looked at him like she was disgusted before she saw Malia's appearance.
Noticing that she didn't feel good, Artemis decided to do as Jason said, as she screeched, before landing on Malia's lap.
Seeing Artemis, Malia smiled faintly, before she began to caress her.
Suddenly the tent turned silent, and nobody knew how to begin their conversation, because both parties wanted to know what happened with the other.
Jennifer was about to break the silence when Theo interrupted her.
"Jason, I'm glad that you survived. You might not want to hear this question, but are you okay with telling us what happened after Lux and Lin shoot at you?"
Theo was more of a straightforward guy, even though he was rather quiet and Jason liked this because he would be more honest as a straightforward guy.
He didn't really have to hide anything and began to tell what happened, from his escape to him meeting the tornado wolves and everything that happened within the elemental crystal cave.
He left out unnecessary information and the extent of his mana eyes, but the three of them were astonished to hear what Jason went through, while they did nothing special at all.
Jason not only survived many perilous situations, but he also broke into the 4th Adept rank.
However, it was only, when he began to talk about Lux, that the surrounding became eerie quiet, with the Daer siblings and Malia stopping in their tracks, not moving at all, as if time stopped.
Without sensing their discomfort, Jason continued and told everything, without letting anything out, even the explosion and Lux's resurrecting the humans he killed.
"F**K" Theo exclaimed, while Jennifer jumped up from her chair, kicking it over.
"This bast*rd! Not only did he betray us, but he also colluded with foreign races?! Where else should he get a resurrection technique from! I should have killed him when I had the chance...ARGH!!"
Jennifer's outburst astonished Jason slightly, but he could understand her somehow.
From the looks of it, Malia and the Daer-siblings didn't know anything about Lux's evil side, even if they knew that he had undead human skeletons as his soulbond.
Thinking that he obtained them from a death domain was easier to accept for them, than thinking that Lux resurrected them himself, and Jason thought that their first thought was most likely even the case.
'He should have obtained the resurrection technique later...Otherwise, the government would have noticed that something was off, even more so because Lux is a student at the Vanguard main school, right? Old Drake probably did background research...or not?'
Jason was not sure how Old Drake handled Astrix and the Vanguard main-school, but from what he figured out about the old man, was that he acted rather carefully, which led him to think that he made a research about all students.
But considering that thousands of students existed, the research about all of them should be less detail-oriented and more focused on the mass.
'Still, he should have done it, right? A death affinity is rare…' Jason reassured himself and decided to change the topic as he started to tell the others about his small journey through the Valley, which released their tension slightly.
Even if there were additional perilous situations, the story he told sounded rather relaxing as if it was nothing special, which caused Theo to smile lightly.
While explaining, the others noticed that Jason was fascinated by all kinds of beasts and that he admired many of them due to their high combat prowess, unique abilities, and strong affinities.
After Jason finished his side what happened during the last two weeks, he looked at the others with a faint smile, saying.
"Well...in the end, it was a nice adventure, even if it was dangerous... Now that I told my side of the story, I also want to hear yours!... Ah and I already forgot to ask, but where is Lin? Didn't he run away with you? I should lecture him a little bit about his little betrayal!"
Hearing Jason saying so, Theo's mouth twitched, and Jennifer looked weirdly, as Malia's weak voice next to him said.
"Lin is probably dead. When we split up, he ran away with Lux. If you haven't seen the two of them together, Lin should be either alone within the four-star rift or dead...I prefer the last"
Nodding his head lightly, Jason thought that Malia's grudge against Lin was even deeper than his own because he didn't really bother thinking about Lin over the last two weeks as he had more than enough things to do by himself.
"Well...I don't think any of us could have ever imagined that Lin or Lux would act so despicable and sacrifice a weaker expedition member, just to stall more time...But even so, it would be unfortunate if Lin died… His wood affinity could have been a valuable asset for humanity."
Theo said, disgusted by his two classmates, he previously saw as his companions, before he continued.
"Compared to your last two weeks, ours were less dangerous, because we rushed back to the highland plateau.
Initially, we wanted to wait for any news about you for some days and leave afterward, but Malia wouldn't go, which forced us to stay there too.
Jennifer and I just hunted a few unblemished beasts in order to complete our expedition task, but that was everything slightly exciting.
We heard lots of news about a bunch of humans going amok, which shocked everyone at the plateau and the majority of news were about the undead beings and a small army of undead killing beasts and humans at the same time.
Over the last few days, there are more news about it and it seems like Lux is on his way to the highland plateau, or rather the four-star rift.
Considering that the four-star rift is only stable for another seven days, I doubt that Lux will come here without a plan.
Maybe we should leave, now that you're back?
It's just too dangerous here because it's not only Lux who suddenly went on a killing spree but also another bunch of crazy humans at the peak of the unblemished rank and their combat prowess suddenly soared.
Not a single human within the four-star rift will stand a chance against them…"
Jason didn't really need to stay within the four-star rift and nodded his head when he heard what Theo said, but it was still somewhat shocking for him to figure out that Lux was not the only one turning their back to humanity..
'How far did the foreign races infiltrate into our society?' He wondered as he said.