It was past 11 pm when Jason arrived in his small room completely exhausted.

Holding the small beast egg in his hands he could feel the thumping of its heart.

Because he was exhausted the only thing he was able to think of was sleeping, without considering his unhatched soulbond.

His day was extremely long and Jason had completely used up the Mana he had gathered in the morning.

His headache and he took off his clothes, only wearing underwear as he went into the bed in order to sleep with the beast-egg close to his heart.

---

Waking up early in the morning, the first thing Jason did was looking at the beast egg that was still placed in his hand.

Activating his eyes' ability, he confirmed that yesterday wasn't a dream as the beast egg radiated still the same dense but weak color as before.

Washing up, he put on a set of newly purchased clothes, before Jason decided to replenish his mana.

There were many ways to replenish one's mana. The slowest would be resting, not doing anything as the body attracted marginal amounts of mana by itself.

With this method, it would take Jason a few days to replenish his useless small storage of mana.

The second method was much more efficient and sitting relaxed down while feeling the Mana flow slowly adjusting to it so that it would go through one.

While this happened one could actively absorb the Mana.

This method was the one Jason used and it took only two hours to replenish his mana completely thanks to his distinct mana sensitivity and control.

However, the fastest method to replenish one's mana was using mana stones but it was also the most expensive method, as mana stones were relatively rare and expensive.

Since the dark age and the sudden outburst of mana, some rare stones, trees, ores, and many more things absorbed mana causing them to change innately.

Some normal stones absorbed mana causing them to change into mana stones, with their density, quality, and quantity grading them.

While this happened occasionally,  sometimes the permanent and temporary rifts were known for their innately manaphil materials.

This was also the reason rifts were seen as a blessing in disguise.

Jason didn't have enough money to use mana stones so wasteful and the method he used was more than good enough for him.

There were also some other methods one could use to replenish mana faster like certain techniques but these were rare and only people from the higher society could obtain and learn them.

Jason as one of the lowest in the chain of society could only dream about learning such a technique at the moment.

Looking at his soulbond, he remembered that the old man said something about the snowflake owl having some problems with its mutation.

Looking at the feeble radiating color of the beast egg he didn't really listen to the old man´s advice,  so he began to worry about his soulbond´s health for a moment. 

He immediately entered the federation network in order to look out for professional doctors with a specialty for beast illnesses.

While the holographic screen from his bracelet opened, he noticed that he got a message from an unknown number.

Opening the message, he saw that it was the old man's number with the content of the message being a file about his soulbond.

He was happy that he received the file about his soulbond as Jason was pondering if he should write a message to the old man because he needed to know what the exact problem was with his beast.

Looking through the file Jason noticed that he couldn't understand anything at all.

There were some scales and numbers, measuring something but it looked like an alien language to him...

Feeling useless Jason went online in order to continue his search for a professional.

Even if it was Sunday,  Jason had to know what's wrong with his soulbond beast before it hatched.

And the main issue was that it wouldn't take long for eggs to hatch once they´re bound.

Jason was told that it would at most take two days from now which wasn't far away.

There were so many things he had to purchase, like beast cub milk, food, training material for himself and his beast, and many more things, as he was completely unaware of what newly hatched owls would eat.

Furthermore, his flat was way too small for a beast, even if it was only a small owl.

The things he wanted to purchase required some space and he would have to lease a new apartment soon.

Placing these thoughts in his mind he had to make a list, what to do first.

The most important thing right now was to figure out how to prevent his soulbond beast to get any disease or other problems.

Looking up a few sites, Jason found a reliable website with a professional that had a few certificates and theory papers about beastology, while most were about beast cubs including theories about birth disease and adverse mutations.

Jason thanked his luck as he dialed the number shown on the website without hesitating for a second, as a young female receptionist answered his call.

Talking with her for a few minutes Jason was feeling more and more frustrated as the receptionist wanted to make an appointment for a month later.

How could he wait a month when the snowflake owl would hatch in two days?!

He wanted to shout out loud, but that wouldn´t help out in his current situation, so Jason calmed down.

Pressuring the receptionist a little bit, Jason sent even the file about his beast through the holographic screen, without waiting for an answer from her.

Jason was about to beg the receptionist to give him five minutes as he heard a middle-aged voice in the background of the receptionist asking her, what's wrong.

The receptionist was still somehow calm as she was probably used to people like Jason when she answered the middle-aged man honestly what was going on.

Jason couldn't hear anything for a few minutes until he heard a quiet.

"Interesting!"

Then the middle-aged voice could be heard closer.

"Young man if you have time you can come over in the afternoon at 5 pm. I will spare some of my time. You can follow the described way at our website in order to find my office. Don't be late. I don't like waiting!"

He ended the call and one could only see the astonished Jason looking at an empty holographic screen.

Then a smile emerged on his face as he was one step closer to his goal.

Jason hoped that this doctor could help him out and he was about to jump around with the soulbond egg in his hand, as he noticed that it might be a bad idea.

**

It was 1 pm when Jason finished replenishing his mana and after eating some small snacks he went out.

Calling a shuttle, Jason wanted to visit a few apartments so he could escape from the filthy room that began to disgust him.

The prices ranged from a few hundred credits to thousands of credits for the outskirts of a C-grade city.

Once one wanted to purchase an apartment closer to the center the price would skyrocket as the center was the safest area with the most and best security.

Jason's district was one of the filthiest and most dangerous with the highest crime rate of the whole city and he didn't want to live there longer than he had to.

To move into a  bigger apartment within a safer district, he would have to pay at least a few thousand credits per month.

With around 300.000 Credits left, Jason was pondering what to do, as never knew when he would gain credits once again, or how much he had to purchase in the future.

For most humans with soulbond beasts, their beasts could be considered the most expensive as some needed expensive meat or other nutrition to nurture and train them.

Furthermore, taking combat training, magic classes, learning battle skills and other techniques with knowledgeable instructors was expensive.

However, these expenditures could be avoided by attending a high-school, which was Jason´s goal.

Resources that might increase the chances of an evolution and many more things one needed were also expensive and difficult to obtain without connections

Driving around with a shuttle and looking for new apartment four hours passed in no time and Jason stood now in front of the address written down on the beast professionals website.

Going inside he was greeted by the female receptionist he previously talked to.

She showed him the way to the office and left afterward.

Walking inside with slight hesitation, Jason was greeted by a middle-aged man with blond hair and eyes with a gentle smile.

The man was tall but skinny and he radiated the aura of a neet which Jason didn't mind.

Rather than that, he felt more  comfortable around people like that.