Staring at the fireball swirling in his hand, Logan had a blank expression.
'Maybe if I gather more mana in my palm and use that to propel it away,' Logan thought. It was the only thing that made sense right now.
He focused, gathering thin strands of mana to his palm.
'That should be good,' he thought.
Logan pushed the energy out of his palm, letting it push the fireball away.
The fireball drifted away from his palm, slow and unstable, before bursting in a small explosion a few feet awa from himy.
'That wasn't exactly where I wanted it to go,' Logan thought, looking at the burning floor.
'How strange,' Logan thought, walking closer to the fire. 'Edric did mention it doesn't seem to go out easily.... But for it to be burning on a non-flammable floor?'
Having walked up to it, Logan tried kicking out the fire.
Realizing something, Logan stopped kicking the fire. Instead, he slowly lowered his hand into the fire until it was all the way in.
'It's not hot?' Logan thought, confused.
He waved his hand through it again. Still, no heat. No pain. Nothing.
'I'll have to keep that in mind,' his mind creaking as he remembered the legends around the phoenix.
'I wonder...' Logan thought, walking to his kitchen.
Without hesitation, he grabbed a knife from the counter and pressed it to his finger, cutting it just enough for blood to drip out.
Walking back to the training grounds, Logan sat down. He concentrated his mana on the cut on his finger and watched.
Logan felt a large amount of mana flow to the wound, as he watched, the wound slowly started to close.
'Wow...' Logan thought, speechless. 'So it does have the regenerative properties of phoenix fire, atleast on me.'
He hadn't expected his mutated affinity to have such strong additional properties.
'I wonder what kind of propeties other SSS-ranks affinities have,' Logan thought, wanting to know how strong and unique his affinity actually was.
He glanced at the fire, still burning steadily on the ground, then at the dummy he had completely missed earlier.
'No matter how strong my affinity is,' Logan started, noting how far he'd been off from the dummy, 'if I can't hit my target, it's all useless.'
'There's still a lot to do,' Logan thought. 'But with my current talent, I can definitely reach the top.'
The thought of being the strongest thrilled him.
'No one can mess with me if I'm the strongest,' Logan thought. 'There's no worries, complete freedom.'
Logan set himself a goal. Not only did he want to become even richer, he wanted to be the strongest.
'I used to be confined by my terrible rank,' Logan thought. 'Now, it's the other way around.''
''Now, I'm confined because my status is too good.'
'Becoming the strongest means breaking free from those bindings,' Logan thought, excited.
Feeling a slight ache in his core, Logan knew it was time to stop training for a few hours.
'Don't want my core to break,' he thought.
Hearing a soft thump coming from his wristband, Logan saw Edric requested to meet him.
'What's going on now?' Logan thought, confused. 'I thought he was supposed to lead the investigators around some more.'
Opening the door, Edric walked in with a difficult expression on his face.
"What's happened?" Logan asked, worried.
"The board is demanding you join their meeting immediately," Edric replied. "They want to know why you spent 200 million dollars to hire the investigation crew."
"Oh?" Logan thought, relieved it wasn't anything serious.
Logan continued to narrow his eyes. "I don't think the board has the power to command me around," he answered coldly. "Tell them I'm busy."
'They want to see if they can push me around and change my mind,' Logan thought, coldly. 'But that isn't happening today. I'm now the heir to this family, and I will act like one.'
"They won't be happy," Edric replied, worry in his eyes.
"They don't have to be," Logan answered. "My decision is final, and that's how it'll remain."
"But..." Edric started.
Logan cut him off. "I've long since burned any bridges between myself and them. Now all that matters is getting rid of the corrupt ones."
"Alright, I'll convey your message to them," Edric answered, straightening up.
"Thank you," Logan said, changing to a soft smile. "Could you bring me some dinner right after?"
"That's not an issue," Edric answered, leaving the room.
After Edric left, Logan couldn't help but smile a little.
'From now on, it's all-out war,' he thought. 'And if they do anything stupid from now on, the prison they'll go to will be called Hell.'
Taking a look at his watch, Logan found a confirmation on the press conference he wanted to hold in two days from Evelyn.
'Two days is enough to let major news stations travel over here and build up some expectations,' Logan thought, sitting down.
Pulling up a hologram, Logan typed in the name of a massive online auction house. It was owned by one of the largest guilds on the planet, the Meridian Guild.
'I should buy some external products to help me during my breakthrough to a Bronze core,' Logan thought.
He'd heard from Edric that a large amount of mana was needed to make the core as strong as it could possibly be, and since he had the money, why wouldn't he search for the best products available?
'I'll need a lot more mana than other people since my affinity is this high,' Logan thought, having heard the difference in what both Edric and Silas could handle.
Logging in on the account Edric had set up for him, Logan tapped on a special, all-day auction. The account he had, held access to a very special market, only available to the ultra-rich and the highest quality products.
Looking at the time, Logan felt relieved. 'I still have around 4 hours before it resets again.'
Each day, products can be put in the auction house. Once placed, buyers have the chance to bid on them until the clock hits midnight in the guild's local timezone.
Scrolling through the massive list of items, Logan was amazed.
'There's barely anything below S-rank,' he thought. 'And if there is, it just means they're selling large amounts or rights to, for example, a C-rank dungeon.'
The bid for the C-rank dungeon stood at 55 million, making Logan raise an eyebrow, but he decided to keep on scrolling.
"This is gonna take too long," Logan muttered. "While I love looking at all these items, I'll have to turn on some filters to find what I need first."
Filtering for fire-type, S-rank, cultivation-type resources, fewer products showed up.
"S-rank herbs, Blazing Orchid, Emberthorn, Infernal Lotus..." Logan read aloud.
Reading through the descriptions, Logan finally found which ones he wanted.