It was early in the morning when Jason woke up.
When he opened his eyes they shone brightly as he rubbed them to get rid of his tiredness.
Jason accessed the federation network and opened the middle-grade graduation site where he entered his serial number.
As he looked at the score in front of him, a torrent of emotions struck him.
These included happiness, sadness, and most importantly frustration.
Jason had received the exact score he had thought that he would.
'Theoretical Exam 100/100 Points
Practical Exam 34/100 Points
Blood test: Passed, Remark: Blind
Mana Core: 2nd Novice rank -40/100 Points
Soul awakening: ?/★★★★★'
It was annoying but Jason couldn't change it anyway so he checked the mail section and saw a notification about the soul awakening.
'Scheduled Soul awakening: Sunday 2. August 10:25 am'
Sighing, Jason noticed that the date was still more than two weeks away and he wasn't really sure what to do until then.
The only thing he was able to do was to gather mana and integrate it into his mana core to improve his rank. He wanted to be fully prepared for the day he would enter the beast pagoda.
His theory about the colored hues around some beasts was still being constructed and Jason was eager to find out if he was correct.
Fortunately, his soul-awakening wasn't today, which was a somewhat positive outcome of his bad exam result. Hence, there was more than enough time for him left to prepare.
Jason was eager but also a bit scared because the soul-awakening and the subsequent step of choosing a soulbond were the most important things every youth had to go through.
He had enough money to purchase an average beast but he didn't know how high his soul energy would be, so Jason stopped thinking about unnecessary things.
Thus, he sat on his bed and gathered mana until lunchtime which led to his mana core being almost replenished.
Somehow, Jason felt that the time required to replenish his mana was extremely long. But he didn't have any good circulation manuals with detailed explanations to help him speed up the process.
Before he would get his soul-awakening done in two weeks, Jason wanted to change a few things which were previously unnecessary.
He wanted to shift into a decent-looking apartment, buy nutritious food, new clothes, and do many more things.
As it was still unknown what soulbond he would get, Jason had to wait to lease a new apartment as the soulbond could be gigantic and thus too big for a small apartment.
It was a small possibility but it could happen nonetheless and he didn't want to waste both his time and money.
Jason had a huge amount of credits left but he wasn't sure of the selling price of most of the things. The rent for his apartment was extremely cheap and he usually bought bread loaves, instant noodles, and snacks at the market with the help of his AI before he gained his eyesight.
He had zero knowledge of how to handle his finances so Jason had to look up some things online.
In the afternoon, Jason compiled a small list of things that he wanted to purchase with an approximate price beside the article name on his phone.
Now he didn't want to purchase these things online anymore, so he went outside heading straight to the shopping district.
Jason wanted to see everything around him and it was boring to sit inside the small smelly apartment for the whole day without anyone's company.
He carried a bandage with him for emergencies, in case he would bump into someone from his class. However, he believed that they had more important things to do, than going on a shopping tour right now.
They were probably thinking about the soul awakening and their future soulbond all the time or lamenting about their low exam scores.
A few minutes after leaving his room, Jason entered a crowded street with many stalls lined on either side.
There was a huge variety of items being sold in the stalls such as food, clothing, magical devices, mana resources, weapons, alchemy resources, and so on.
Jason was in need of many new clothes, food and he wanted to buy a quantum bracelet that would replace his ancient-looking smartphone.
His current phone was an outdated version and extremely old but that wasn't the reason for him wanting a new one.
The quantum bracelets were sturdy and had a better resistance that could even withstand attacks from magical beasts. On the other hand, his phone would probably be destroyed soon if it fell a few more times out of his pockets, which wasn´t an uncommon occurrence.
Furthermore, Jason would have to be fast and flexible while traveling through wild zones. His phone was too bulky to allow such movements.
This was only futuristic thinking but still important to be prepared for.
The quantum bracelet also had another special feature which was spatial storage. The bracelets were comparatively slightly cheaper than the quantum watches that also had the same feature.
Jason had enough credits left behind from his mother's death insurance, the pay from his mother's murderers, and his allowance from the Cerus family, so he would be able to purchase a quantum bracelet.
Because of the integrated storage space, Jason wanted to purchase the quantum bracelet as the first thing.
Going around for almost half an hour, he roamed through the market checking the different items being sold. After satisfying his curiosity, he searched for a while before he found a 5 story building with a big quantum bracelet sign.
The shop looked luxurious from the outside and Jason stepped inside through the wide door.
An attendant rushed to greet the new customer with a broad smile. However, when he noticed Jason's worn-off clothes, his smile turned into a frown as he grew visibly disappointed to see him. Though, he tried to quickly mask his disappointment and asked him,
"Hello Sir, are you here to purchase a quantum watch or bracelet, or did Sir maybe enter the wrong shop?"
Jason felt the attendant's gaze on him and realized once again that he was wearing old, worn-off clothes.
He understood the attendant's question and didn't harbor any ill feelings against him as he answered honestly.
"I'm here to purchase a quantum bracelet. Can you recommend one with decent storage space and a high endurance that can withstand attacks from magical beasts? You don't need to ask if I have enough credits."
He added the last sentence to avoid getting in an embarrassing or awkward situation and the attendant understood the pointed remark. What he couldn't decipher was why this youth wore clothes like that if he was able to purchase a quantum bracelet?
The attendant nodded his head and retrieved a few quantum bracelets from a glass cabinet. He placed them on a large desk and explained their capabilities with a few simple sentences including the price, storage size, and so on.
These bracelets ranged from 10,000 to millions of credits. Jason, who thought his huge fortune of slightly more than 500,000 credits was enough to purchase one of the best quantum watches, was more than a little bit astonished.
After checking all of the available cheaper priced quantum watches and bracelets, Jason found a black one that met his requirements and seemed to fit well.
The Black demonic bull318 quantum bracelet was made of black iron and certain other materials.
It could withstand a blow of a Black demonic bull which was a strength-type magical beast enhanced with a demonification with a storage space of 2500 cubic meters.
The storage device was the most expensive part of the quantum bracelet. It needed to be forged by a blacksmith master with the help of an inscription master and the core of a spatial type mana beast.
If Jason wanted he could get his storage space enlarged but that would cost even more and Jason didn't need it at the moment.
Spatial-type mana cores were rare and thus the storage space made up at least 60% of the price.
Jason had to pay 199,999 credits which caused him a great deal of discomfort but he quickly transferred the required amount of credits to the shop's bank account before he could change his mind.
The attendant was astonished that such a poor-looking youth had so many credits as his pay wasn't even 1% of the youth's payment.
Most citizens were paid around 1500 Credits a month which was enough to feed the family and their younger soulbonds with some low-grade food.
They couldn't purchase high nutrition food with this income but surviving in a C-grade city with 1500 Credits a month was almost a wonder.
Jason's expenditure was way lower because he had a very low appetite and he was very frugal when it came to purchasing stuff for himself such as clothes and other things.
Thus, he only bought necessary things for his hygiene and health and lived in a smelly and hideous-looking room for 100 credits a month.
In addition, he told himself to buy more high-nutrition food to fix his malnourished body and become stronger.
The rent of the apartment was cheap as the building was about to get demolished in a few years and it was located in the vilest area in the whole city.
His expenditure was thus less than 200 Credits a month, so paying almost 200,000 was way too much for his fragile heart to handle.
Jason thought even if the expenditure would make him sad, it was required because he wanted to get stronger. He wished to adventure through the wild zones in order to earn some credits while thinking about his future.
He would have to decide soon, whether he should attend a trashy school in Artes to learn more about martial arts and knowledge that he was already aware of or gain credits by hunting weak beasts while improving oneself slowly.