The morning of the second day in this unfamiliar world, Lucas goes to the Quest building to redeem his reward. After teaching the children for the entire day, he revels in his $50 dollar payout.
"Good job to you, we monitored your work and we saw you put your highest effort in it. With that, you will get $50 for treating those kids so well."
Thinking of ways he could spend it, and also the compliment, only 2 things popped up in his mind:
Food and a place to live. According to the tablet, money is worth quite a bit in this world. So with 40 dollars, he could spent 2 nights in a nearby hotel. And with 2 dollars, a full meal. Now with this, he decides to eat his lunch, a full-blown steak. Food is extra potent in this Earth, every bite of food here is 4 bites of normal food on Earth. So it isn't surprising Lucas ended up with a bloated stomach afterwards.
After getting his fill on '4' steaks, he heads back to the quest shop to get more money. When he made it to the front of the line, only 1 task remained.
[Work at the Downtown Cafeteria]
"Ready for more already? I applaud your efforts." The man at the counter said with a chuckle.
Once again, another notification showed up. With his tablet, he navigated the streets to the cafeteria. Signing in for his work, he started to make some food. At first he was disgusted at the quality of the ingredients. But he quickly got used to it, after all, it was just a regular place for a few hundred students here to eat and study.
After a full day of work, another 50 dollars had been added to his account. At this point, he was sure he could explore a bit now. And with that, he set off trying to figure out the workings of this world. It was then that he found out about "Qi." There was a simple system that allowed people with "Qi" to create magic spells and help the world. The reason he hasn't seen any Qi wielders yet is because most of everyone lacked talents for Qi. But as for Lucas, discovered he could actually harvest it.
Focusing on the air around him, he sat in lotus position and breathed in deeply. After some time, Lucas absorbed enough to grant him 1st Elementary Spirit, Refinement. This was nowhere near powerful. In fact, it was so weak, nobody would even be able to tell he was refining qi. So, discovering his newfound talents, and being ever the opportunist, he went back home to refine some more. Overnight, he reached 3rd Elementary Spirit, Refinement. Since he had 1 more day in his hotel before he had to go (with his 40 dollar payment), he quickly took advantage and broke through to 6th Elementary Spirit, Stabilized.
The last part of each breakthrough had confused him, so he searched the meaning. Apparently, the words mean a lot. If you were unstable and at the highest realm, you would nearly instantly explode due to the immense power and your weak foundation. A good foundation is required to have good qi refining. The stronger your base is, the stronger your potential is. That's how it worked in this world. So figuring out he had stable refinement only caused him to rejoice. On the other hand, the 6th Elementary Spirit is nowhere compared to the actual useful aspect of qi.
For that, he would have to need to make it to the Nascent Spirit realm. But that is easier said than done. Putting in another 20 dollars into the hotel's pockets, he refined his qi some more.