The next day, while Lohan was doing his daily morning exercises, he remembered that he had over $6,000 in his account and decided to invest more in himself.
"I only need to pay $1,222 a month for my rent and loan interest; the rest of that money can be used however I see fit..."
Looking at the two remaining packets of nutritional supplement in the fridge, despite how terrible it tasted, he dissolved both packets in a glass of water and drank it all.
If the taste of a single packet was already terrible, making that drink twice as concentrated was more than twice as bad.
To manage to swallow it, he had to activate efficient digestion at maximum level and ignore the taste of it just as he was used to doing as a Slime.
The difference between a human’s fixed body structure and a Slime’s malleable body was stark, so he couldn’t ignore the tastes completely in the real world, but it helped a lot.
When it reached his stomach, Lohan felt intense energy surge through his blood, nourishing every muscle fiber in his body, accelerating the regeneration speed of broken fibers, and increasing his strength much faster than before.
The improvements he received from reaching Level 10 were now even clearer; since his body had enough nutrients to accommodate that new power, the rate at which he gained these improvements skyrocketed.
With every exercise he did, Lohan felt the synchronization between his body and the Slime’s energy increasing more and more.
After finishing his exercises, he treated himself to another shower.
Even with the ability to digest the dirt on his body using his own sweat, as he had been doing for the past few days, the sensation of water falling on his body was very comforting. And without the worry that any credits would be spent on this shower, the feeling was even better.
After the shower, Lohan digested the remaining dirt that the dirty water hadn’t managed to remove, and felt incredible.
The walk to college was even better, as if the world were shining for him.
The stench of the other people crammed into the flying bus didn’t bother him, nor did the dirt on his clothes; not even the heavy, oppressive atmosphere affected the good mood Lohan was in.
Arriving at college, though he kept his posture straight, he didn’t walk with his chin up, feeling that being discreet there was still the best course of action.
In the classroom, surprisingly, Isabella Vance had arrived early again.
When Lohan looked in her direction, the girl’s eyes met his, and in a split-second glance, the two recognized each other completely, but showed no reaction and quickly looked away.
Isabella continued "chatting" with the girls sitting around her, or rather, listening to the girls who talked incessantly.
Meanwhile, Lohan sat in his isolated spot in the corner of the classroom.
He thought he’d sit there quietly until the end of class, only to be surprised by someone sitting down in the seat in front of him.
Looking up from his phone in surprise, Lohan saw Devon sitting in front of him, staring at him in surprise.
"Hey, bro..." he said as he moved a little closer to Lohan, closing his eyes as if trying to sense something, and speaking in a low voice. "How are you doing that? It’s like the Mana sensation in you is much weaker."
His question surprised Lohan; he didn’t quite understand what he was talking about until he remembered the energy control technique Yrneha had taught him, but he had no intention of explaining it.
Not only did he not know Devon well enough, but he trusted him even less.
"Ohh, it’s surprising that you can sense that, your affinity for Mana seems pretty high?" Lohan deflected the question with another question.
Devon looked at Lohan suspiciously for a few more seconds and replied in a low voice, making sure no students from the Upper Zone or the room’s audio sensors could pick up his words.
"Yeah... I got lucky with my Rare Base, but what I sense in you is different, bro..." Devon murmured, leaning forward and covering his mouth with one hand, a tactic he used to prevent even lip-reading from being possible. "It’s not just affinity with Mana, but my perception of the real world has improved a lot since I arrived in the Open World, just as I’m sure yours has too, given what I sensed from you yesterday, and your Mana, which used to seem so dense, is now almost imperceptible..."
Lohan kept a neutral expression, though inwardly he was impressed by the sharpness of Devon’s senses. The energy contraction training Yrneha had taught him in the magic tower was working, but for someone with a Rare Base and focused on perception, Lohan still exuded a unique signature that Devon had previously described as an "incredible mix of different types of Mana."
"You’re overthinking this, Baker. I’m just trying not to attract the attention of the Upper Zone folks again; I want to avoid the trouble those spoiled brats can bring." Lohan replied evasively, also covering his mouth and whispering softly, using the pretext of discretion to keep a low profile.
Devon let out a frustrated sigh, but his eyes shone with renewed determination. He glanced quickly to the side, seeing Isabella Vance surrounded by her classmates, and then refocused on Lohan.
"Yeah, I get it. To be honest, if it weren’t for sensing your potential, I wouldn’t have approached you either. The risk we’re taking here is huge... from what I’ve heard, some groups in the Upper Zone are using sensors to find Players with high-potential Bases to ’hire.’ Luckily they haven’t made it to the Lower Zone yet, but I can see that’s only a matter of time."
Hearing that, Lohan was even more surprised. Thinking about the group Devon mentioned, and the two gangs he’d encountered a few days ago, a dangerous picture formed in his mind. "And are the people in the Lower Zone just going to stand by while the Upper Zone takes those with the greatest potential?"
That question made Devon’s gaze sharpen as he looked at Lohan, surprised that this seemingly ordinary kid was thinking about such things; usually, the average folks in the Lower Zone just keep their heads down and think of nothing beyond their own survival.
For Lohan to have asked a question like that, he at least knew a little about who controlled the Lower Zone.
"Hell nah, some idiots will probably sell themselves out practically like slave traders, but most will likely react negatively to this, and as you can imagine, it’ll only be a matter of time before another war breaks out..." He sighed.
"Another war?" Lohan asked curiously; he genuinely didn’t know much about the history of this planet’s Lower Zone.
He only knew that every planet had places like these, but it’s not as if the Lower and Upper Zones of each place were interconnected, they merely mimic each other’s structures. After all, the groups that control each planet are different.
This time it was Devon who was surprised. Right after displaying specific knowledge about something more profound, he asked a question as basic as that?
But he didn’t mind answering.