"I survived another day..." Logan mumbled, shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his worn-out jacket.
Walking down the cracked sidewalk on his way to his apartment, he came across a familiar television shop. Coming to a stop, Logan watched the news reports which were being played on repeat.
"In today's headlines: Still no clues regarding the Mercer family's disappearance. Increased activity of aquatic monsters near the Atlantic coast. Global Arcane University wraps up its freshman competition..." the news reporter's voice echoed.
Logan didn't move. He'd stood here countless times before as a kid, interested in all topics related to hunters. Looking past the screens, he spotted the same middle-aged shop owner who used to chase him away for blocking the window too long.
"Nothing interesting today," he thought, shaking his head.
The water creatures will just get handled by high-ranked hunters once they get remotely close to land,
whereas the results of the freshman competition from the Global Arcane University are already a few days old.
And then finally, the Mercer family's sudden disappearance, while quite a shock when it happened last year, is nothing but old news by now.
With a sigh, he turned around and continued walking towards his apartment.
A while later, an old apartment complex surrounded by a rusty fence came into view. The building had five floors, each with several housing units.
Going up the concrete stairs to the fifth floor, Logan walked down the corridor and arrived in front of his door. Twisting the key in the lock, he opened the door and walked inside.
'Homework can wait until later,' Logan thought, after throwing his bag on his bed.
"System," he said, summoning a golden-colored hologram in the air. "Redeem 25 dollars."
[Redeeming 25 USD...]
[Congratulations! You have received an F-rank raw energy core.]
"Garbage again," Logan muttered, looking at the energy core in his hand. "Well, at least I somewhat earned my money back this time."
Tossing the core onto his bed, he looked at the system interface again.
[Cooldown: 71:59:59]
Swiping the cooldown message away, Logan looked at the very limited amount of options.
[System Interface]
Name: Logan Mercer
Core Grade: Gray
Affinity: F-rank fire affinity
Cooldown: 71:58:43
He'd gotten this spending system out of nowhere after touching a 50-dollar bill during his first week living on his own, right after being forced out of the orphanage.
'I really thought this system would turn my life upside down,' Logan thought, remembering how happy he'd been.
'It probably would've, if it wasn't for my low affinity,' he sighed, closing the system interface.
Sitting down on his bed, Logan crossed his legs and closed his eyes.
Entering a meditative state, his mind reached a dark space. In the middle hovered a single, massive floating orb. Approaching the orb, Logan directed his attention at the small white-yellowish swirling mass within it.
Concentrating, tiny yellow particles started floated around the mass. Keeping his concentration on the particles, they slowly started drifting towards the floating orb until they reached the orb and disappeared.
Hours passed as Logan continued meditating.
"Ugh," he said, stretching his arms as he stopped meditating.
"That's done for today," he muttered, glancing at the tiny alarm clock on the ground beside his bed.
"It's already 11 PM," Logan sighed. "Four hours of meditation is all I managed today. School, coupled with filling shelves, makes it impossible to get enough meditation in."
'School, huh.'
Just thinking about school irritated Logan.
'Then again, there are only a couple of months left until graduation. I survived the past few years, I'm sure I can finish these last few months.
Although... it is concerning that David managed to upgrade his gray core to a bronze one.'
"I'll just have to hope he doesn't pick on me too much," Logan muttered, feeling down.
In this world, what mattered most was affinity.
Every human has a core; a real, physical organ, sitting beside the heart. Inside this core sits a swirling elemental mass known as the affinity.
Your affinity's rank determined everything: how much elemental energy you could draw for spells, how quickly you could cultivate, and how powerful you could eventually become.
'At my current rate, it's going to take at least 2 more years to reach a bronze-stage core.'
While affinity decides your cultivation speed and is the fuel for spells, your core grade decides how much energy you can actually use.
The core wasn't just a container. It controls how much energy a person can use for spells at a time; draw too much, and the core will crack. Push too far, and it could shatter completely, leaving someone crippled or worse.
That's why cultivating your core is so important: slowly strengthening its walls and capacity until it evolves into a new grade.
'Let's forget about all of that and work a little on control,' Logan thought, taking his mind off his affinity.
Concentrating on his fingertip, he slowly guided tiny bits of energy until a tiny yellow flame started burning on top of it.
Opening his eyes, Logan looked at the flame carefully with only one thought on his mind:
'Keep it steady.'
Seconds passed. Slowly, Logan started to move his hand around.
After 4 minutes, the flame began slowly thinning out until it suddenly disappeared.
'Let's do that 9 more times.'
Time passed as Logan repeated the exercise, taking a short break halfway through.
After finishing, he glanced at the alarm clock again.
'Another hour and a half had passed.' Logan thought, feeling exhausted.
Looking at the bag beside him, he scratched his head.
'I guess I kind off forgot about homework.'
'But I really can't be bothered to work on it now. I'll just go to bed,' Logan decided, pushing both his bag and the raw mana core off his bed. I'll just have to see if I can finish it during some of the other earlier classes tomorrow.
After brushing his teeth with water again, he turned off the light and laid down in bed. Setting his alarm at 6:30 AM, he got a disgusted feeling as he thought about having to go to school again tomorrow.
'Just a few more months, then I can move on from this.'