It was early in the morning when Jason woke up.

Opening his eyes they shone with vigor as he rubbed them to dispel his tiredness.

Entering the federation network, Jason accessed the middle-grade graduation site where he entered his serial number.

Looking at the score he saw in front of him, Jason was stuck between multiple types of emotions.

Happiness, sadness, and most importantly frustration.

Jason received the score exactly as he thought 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 entered his mail section and saw a notification about the soul awakening

'Scheduled Soul awakening: Sunday 2. August 10:25 am'

Sighing, Jason noticed that the 2. August 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 gathering mana and integrating it into his mana core to improve his rank, as he wanted to be fully prepared for the day he would enter the beast pagoda.

His theory was still constructing slowly and Jason was expectant to find out if he was correct.

Fortunately, his soul-awakening wasn't today which was a somewhat positive side-effect from his bad exam result, so there was more than enough time for him left.

Jason was expectant but also a little bit scared because of the soul-awakening and the following choosing of his soulbond were the most important things every youth had to go through.

He had enough money to purchase a so-so beast but he didn't know how high his soul energy would be, so Jason stopped thinking about unnecessary things.

Sitting on his bed and gathering mana until lunchtime Jason's mana core was almost replenished.

Somehow Jason felt that the time to replenish his mana was extremely long but he didn't have any good circulation manuals with good explanations to 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 change into a decent-looking apartment, bought nutritious food, new clothes, and many more things.

As it was still unknown what soulbond he would get, Jason had to wait with the leasing of a new apartment as the soulbond could be gigantic and thus too big for a small apartment.

The possibility was small but still there and he didn´t want to waste time and money.

Jason had a huge amount of Credits left but he wasn't sure for how much most things were sold for as he was provided with his apartment for an extremely cheap price and he 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 finished writing a small list of things he wanted to purchase with an approximate price behind the article name on his phone.

Because he didn't want to purchase these things online, 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 the whole day without anyone's company.

He brought a bandage with him for emergencies, if someone from his class would appear but he believed 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 on each side of it.

Many kinds of stalls were there, including food stalls, clothing stalls, magical devices, stalls about mana resources, weapon stalls, alchemy stalls, and so on.

Jason needed many new clothes, food and he wanted to buy a quantum bracelet that would replace his ancient-looking smartphone.

His old phone was already extremely old but that wasn't the reason Jason decided to buy a new one.

The quantum bracelets had a better resistance that could even endure attacks from magical beasts, while 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, during journeys through wild zones, Jason would have to be fast and flexible and his phone was too big and hard to allow such movements.

This was only futuristic thinking but still important to think about.

The quantum bracelet had also another special feature.

Integrated with spatial storage the price skyrocket for quantum watches.

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 Jason stood in front of a 5 story building with a big quantum bracelet sign.

The shop looked luxurious and Jason entered it through the door.

An attendant greeted him before noticing Jason's worn-off clothes, causing a frown to cover the attendant's expression for a moment.

"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 remembered once again that he wore 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 handle attacks from magical beasts? You don't have to ask if I have enough credits."

He said the last sentence to avoid getting in an embarrassing or awkward situation and the attendant understood his meaning, even if he couldn't decipher why this youth wore clothes like that if he was able to purchase a quantum bracelet

Taking out a few quantum bracelets the attendant explained their capabilities with a few simple sentences including the price, storage size, and so on.

From 10.000 to millions of credits everything was included and 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.

Sensing everything at the 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 out 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 by a demonification and the storage space it had were 2500 cubic meters.

The storage device was the most expensive part of the quantum bracelet as it needed to be made from a blacksmith master with the help of an inscription master and the core of a spatial type mana core.

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 a sting in his heart but he made a transaction to the shop's bank account before he changed 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 smaller soulbonds with some low-graded food.

They couldn't purchase high nutrition food with this income but being alive in a C-grade city with 1500 Credits a month was almost a wonder.

Jason's expenditure was way lower because he didn't eat much before and he never bought clothes and other things.

He 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 price was so cheap as the building was about to get demolished in a few years and it was situated in the vilest district inside the whole city.

His expenditure was thus less than 200 Credits a month, so paying almost 200.000 was way too much for his small and tender heart to handle.

Jason thought even if the expenditure hurt, it was required because he wanted to get stronger to adventure the wild-zones in order to gain 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 he already knew or gain credits by hunting weak beasts while improving oneself slowly.