After spending more than 20 minutes with Janet who somehow filled him in with more miscellaneous information about tomorrow's Joint Rookie Training Camp, Aldrin hurriedly left the Refiner's Association just in case Janet stopped him again.
On his ride back to the Southeastern District, Aldrin first summarized the events in his head before analyzing what exactly happened.
He was sure that... not only the Association gave him a very generous contract offer, but Janet also gave him something that couldn't be easily bought by a new Energy Refiner like him.
Naturally, he's thankful for what he received but that begged him the question of what he did to deserve such treatment. It was like the Association was too set on recruiting him.
'Did they find out something about me?'
That's the first thought that first flashed in Aldrin's mind which he eventually dropped.
Apart from his spherical Energy Quintessence, there should be nothing else notable about him... Except for his connection to Janet.
'Is she the reason why I got that kind of offer? But if that's the case, she seemed oblivious about the contract itself. Moreover, there's no reason to be that good to me. Being a subject for her teasing shouldn't be enough to warrant that. In fact, if not for the bait she dangled and the Association offering me the best benefit, I would probably reject to fulfill the favor that I owed.'
After contemplating the matter for more than five minutes, Aldrin eventually shook his head and put it at the back of his mind.
Pulling out his phone, he first checked his messages, faintly hoping Renissa replied to him last night.
Unfortunately, there's no reply from her yet. She already began her studies in that Academy.
According to her most recent reply, the Academy was more like entering a next-level training than what she received from the Branch Head of Frostland.
Furthermore, instead of teamwork, she mentioned how the competition among Energy Refiners there was fierce. On her first day, she was thrust into a one versus one duel against Energy Refiner of a higher level.
Winning that duel placed her into some kind of Special Class that seemed to be consisting of talented or genius Energy Refiners. And that kind of designation for her made Aldrin confirmed that she's also one of those talented geniuses she spoke of.
Compared to him who was still fully reliant on IDLE Database, Renissa's talent was the real deal.
Since there's no message from her, Aldrin scrolled down to check on his other messages and found two. Bert and Alisa's message.
The two had already been released from the evacuation center, the same day his parents returned to the Southeastern District. Aldrin was just too busy with IDLE Database so the best he could do was check on their status. Not just them but also those former classmates that were with them when the disaster struck.
Bert's message was simple or rather, just the same old regular update of his friend about his life. His restaurant that was damaged was in the process of being rebuilt already. He even showed a selfie of him along with those beauty guards of him. He still had two other branches so he wasn't that affected by the disaster. In fact, he was more curious about Aldrin's path now that he became an official Energy Refiner.
After replying to him with his current status and how he would be leaving for the Joint Training outside the city tomorrow, he moved on to the next message.
Like with Renissa, Alisa was someone he got rather close with after the disaster. During the past few days, the two of them already exchanged mails, checking on each other. He was aware that the woman was slowly gaining interest in him and it's not in a bad way. She's curious about his new life as an Energy Refiner. Instead of thinking that she was charmed by him, Aldrin attributed it to how she witnessed his whole awakening process.
When he asked her, Alisa admitted how she's also hoping to become an Energy Refiner. But being someone who could only rely on luck or a large amount of money to become one, she somehow accepted her fate. So instead of that, she settled herself to hearing stories from Aldrin.
This time, her message was just an update on her current state. The college she was attending was temporarily closed due to the disaster so she had no choice but to stay at home for a week. Moreover, she asked if he had time to go out with her for a cup of coffee while not masking her intention to listen to new stories from him.
Since they're both from the Southeastern District and he would be leaving the city tomorrow, Aldrin accepted her invitation.
After sending his reply, Aldrin then returned his focus back on IDLE Database, opening its application installed on his phone to check on the result of Idle Adventure with the new Automatic Renewal Feature.
The feature allowed him to configure Idle Adventure mode in autorun without needing to input it every time.
There are four important configurations in it;
Automatic Assistant, to set how many multipliers will be bought and when to purchase the healing option for the injured Dimensional Clones.
Re-run Timer, to set when the Idle Adventure would start the next run after finishing.
Exit Configuration, to set when it will initiate the 'Leaving the Dimension' sequence to prevent the 50% loss of IDLE Point income if all of his Dimensional Clones died.
And lastly, Run Limit, to set how many runs the Automatic Renewal would be activated, preventing the usage of all his available runs if ever he forgot or he was too busy to check it.
Among the three, 'Exit Configuration' was the only one with a fee and a warning.
The fee was 10% of Total IDLE Points earned during a run and the warning was about the possibility of failure to happen, specifically if the Dimensional Clones were cornered without any path to escape.
Just like what he observed before, leaving the dimension wasn't allowed if they were being chased or targeted. His clones had to lose their pursuers and go to a safe place before initiating it.
'Here's to hoping! Otherwise, I might not use it again.' He inwardly thought as he waited for his phone to load the application.
[Two runs completed!]
[Total IDLE Points earned: 3845]
[Automatic Exit fee: 384]
[IDLE Points to be stored: 3461]
[Evaluations: C+ and B]
[Conquest Progress: +2%]
The result page experienced a change. Although not as detailed as before, it still contained enough information to tell him that... even if 10% would be cut off... it's well worth it considering he's about to be busy in the upcoming Training Camp.
The feature being unlocked was timed perfectly. He could now just set the first four runs in auto and manually control the fifth one.
There's just one drawback for that though... He had to read through status logs to be updated with what's happening in that Lower Dimension. He knew that at the current rate, it wouldn't be long until he started clashing against those Champions or armies commanded by them whenever he would show up.
He had already disrupted the ecology of the Dimension by hunting those ants, resulting in their territory halting its expansion because of how cautious they became.
In any case, Aldrin was looking forward to conquering it completely and seeing what would change or what would be unlocked in the IDLE Database.
'I made a small blunder when I used almost all of my IDLE Points without converting half earlier because of the Ripple Skill.' Aldrin thought back about breaking his rule of halving his income for use and Dimensional Energy conversion.
[IDLE Points storage: 6517/15000]
'I have a lot of choices. Since I still have the fifth run and the income that will be credited later at midnight... I can pass up on converting Dimensional Energy today to save up for another Dimensional Clone that costs 10000 points or upgrade Tank or Hitter's main weapon to Level 5 for 7500. There's also the option of increasing the number of Small Merchants, once they expire, to 75 for close to 8000 points.'
However, Aldrin instantly shook his head at the third option he thought of.
Although the next bonus for Small Merchants is another x1.5 multiplier, his profit, if the cost was deducted, is close to what he's getting from 50 Small Merchants.
The harsh price scaling was a total bane for him. A time would come where he had to save up points just to reach the next threshold.
For a clearer view, if the trend of multiplying the price scale by five every 25 increments continued... that's a whopping 38200 IDLE Points or exactly 3,817,500 Federation Credits to buy 100 Small Merchants!
'But buying more Small Merchants was possibly the only way to unlock the next tier... And if I predict it from normal idle games I encountered, it's not wrong to assume that 100 Small Merchants will be the unlocking requirement for it...'
At this point in his thoughts, Aldrin spent the last few minutes on the train deliberating which path he was going to take. Dimensional Clone, Equipment, Merchants, or Dimensional Energy.