17 No Time!

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

He was still clutching the small beast egg in his hands and could feel the thumping of its heart.

Because he was exhausted, the only thing he could think of right now was sleeping, wanting to temporarily forget his unhatched soulbond.

His day had been extremely long and Jason had completely utilized the mana he had gathered in the morning.

He was having a horrible headache and couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Thus, he took off his clothes, only wearing underwear as he climbed 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 look at the beast egg that was still placed in his hand.

Activating his eyes' ability, he confirmed that the last day hadn't been a dream. An audible gasp escaped his lips when he saw that the beast egg still radiated 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 uselessly small storage of mana.

The second method was much more efficient which involved sitting in a relaxed position while concentrating on feeling the mana flow. The body would slowly adjust to it and 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 owing 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, though the absorption rate hadn't been uniform across all the stones. This gave birth to a variety of mana stones that were further classified or graded based on their density, quality, and quantity.

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

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

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

There were also some other methods one could use to replenish mana at a greater speed by using certain techniques. But these were rare and only people from the higher society could obtain and learn them.

Jason, as one of the members of the bottom of the economic pyramid of society, could only dream of learning such a technique at the moment.

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

He recalled not paying heed to the old man's advice as he looked at the feeble radiating color of the beast egg, and worried about his soulbond´s health for a moment. 

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

As the holographic screen from his bracelet opened, he noticed that he had received 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 to have received the file about his soulbond as Jason had been pondering about writing a message to the old man. He had been anxious because he needed to know what was the exact problem with his beast.

Though, as he looked through the file, he grew disappointed. 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 a Sunday, Jason had to know what was wrong with his soulbond beast before it hatched.

Time was of the essence as it wouldn't take long for eggs to hatch once they were 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.

As these thoughts ran wild through his mind, he decided to make a list of what to do first.

The most important thing right now was to figure out how to prevent his soulbond beast from getting 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 mentioned on the website without hesitating for a second, as a young female receptionist answered his call.

He grew more and more frustrated after talking with her for a few minutes because 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 in his current situation, so Jason calmed down.

Wanting to pressure the receptionist a little bit, Jason even sent 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 about what was going on.

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

"Interesting!"

Then the middle-aged voice could be heard clearly.

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

With that, the man on the other end disconnected the call and one could only see an astonished Jason looking at an empty holographic screen.

Then a smile emerged on his face as he inched 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 when he realized 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.

He booked a shuttle and decided to visit a few apartments so he could escape the filthy room that had begun to disgust him.

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

The prices kept increasing as one moved from the outskirts towards the center of the city and were the highest for 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 locality 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 locality, he would have to pay at least a few thousand credits per month.

With around 300,000 Credits left, Jason was pondering on what to do, as he 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.

While driving around with a shuttle and looking for a new apartment four hours passed in the blink of an eye. Jason now found himself standing in front of the address mentioned on the beast professional's website.

As he entered the office, he was greeted by the female receptionist he had previously talked to.

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

He walked inside with slight hesitation and was greeted by a middle-aged man with blond hair and a face that welcomed him with a gentle smile.

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

Rather, he felt more comfortable around people like that.