"I survived another day..." Logan mumbled, shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his worn-out jacket. "But I'm still no closer to Bronze."
Walking down the cracked sidewalk on his way to his apartment, he came across a familiar television shop.
Coming to a stop, Logan's eyes locked onto the freshman competition footage flashing across the screen.
Big thunder beams, advanced weapon techniques, the crowd cheering.
'If only I could be like that,' he thought, watching the hunters fight.
As a kid, he used to press his face against the glass just to get a better look at the hunters on television—before the shop owner ran out and chased him away.
"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.
'Same crap as yesterday,' he thought, shaking his head. 'The water creatures? Let A-rank hunters handle it. The university stuff looked cool, but it's been on for days.'
'And the Mercer family disappearance? Big deal last year. Now no one cares.'
With a sigh, he turned around and continued walking towards his apartment.
"Nothing on the news matters anyway," he muttered, shaking his head. "Not when I have this shitty affinity."
A while later, an old apartment complex surrounded by a rusty fence came into view.
Heading 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]
He swiped the cooldown message away and stared at the pathetic list 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. 'Hell, it probably would've, if it wasn't for my low affinity.'
He shook his head, closing the system interface.
"I need to work harder for more money," he muttered, rubbing his face. "Maybe then I can get something good out of the system."
With a sigh, he sat down on his bed, 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.
As he concentrated, the tiny yellow particles started floating around the mass, slowly drifting towards the floating orb until they reached it and disappeared.
Hours passed as Logan continued meditating.
"Ugh," he said, stretching his arms as he stopped meditating. "That's finally done for today."
Glancing at the tiny alarm clock on the ground beside his bed, he shook his head slightly.
"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.
'All affinity decides is cultivation speed and what kind of core grade you can eventually reach,' Logan thought bitterly. 'At my current rate, it's going to take at least two more years to reach a bronze-stage core.'
While affinity decides the type of mana and how fast you can cultivate, the core controls how much you can use at once.
'A few years ago, one of our seniors almost died in a dungeon because he pushed too far,' Logan recalled with a shiver. 'Cracks in a core can heal with time, but his had shattered completely. He's been crippled ever since.'
Since then, the importance of slowly strengthening the core's walls and capacity, so it could evolve into better grades, had been drilled into his head
'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 of 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 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,' he thought.
Deep inside, he was worried about David's celebration tomorrow.
'Chances are that he'll use it to teach me a lesson again.'