Chapter 14: Progress

Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Progress

The municipal clinic’s physician had guaranteed that with the analgesic paste and reinforced composite splint, the fracture would knit cleanly within forty-eight hours.

*Two days of forced downtime,* Eric thought, his boots scuffing along the cracked pavement of the lower district. *I can’t wield a blade in a dungeon, but I can dedicate every spare hour to foundational mana cultivation.*

He pushed open the weathered front door of Sunshine Home.

The instant Emily stepped out from the kitchen and caught sight of his immobilized left arm resting in a tight sling, the color drained from her face. She dropped her dishtowel onto the counter and rushed across the foyer, her hands trembling as she hovered over the thick bandages.

"Eric! What happened to your arm?! Are you alright?!"

"I’m fine, Sis," Eric said, offering a calm, reassuring smile with his good right hand. "Just a blunt strike from a monster’s tail. Nothing serious."

"Nothing serious?!" Emily’s eyes rimmed with tears, her voice tight with rising panic. "Eric, you don’t have to throw yourself into meat-grinder dungeons! We can figure something out... we can borrow from the municipal union, we can—"

"Look at this, Emily."

Eric pulled his new smartphone from his pocket, unlocked the display with his thumb, and turned the screen toward her.

Emily froze. Her gaze locked onto the glowing numbers illuminated against the dark glass, her jaw parting in stunned silence.

MUNICIPAL CITIZEN BANKING

Account Holder: Eric (ID: #247-RD)

Verified Status: Mortal Rank Awakened

Current Available Balance: 350,000 CREDITS

"I bought the phone, too," Eric explained quietly. "Three hundred and fifty thousand credits, fully cleared and banked. Once we settle Vane’s syndicate debt, everything will change. Sunshine Home won’t struggle for food, winter heating, or medicine ever again. I’ll give you my word."

"Eric... how did you earn this much in a single afternoon?" Emily whispered, shock quickly turning to anxiety. "Please tell me you didn’t sign on with black-market smugglers or—"

"It is one hundred percent legal," Eric said, meeting her eyes with calm, unshakeable certainty.. "Trust me, Sis. Let me carry the heavy lifting from now on."

Emily looked into his dark, steady eyes for several seconds. Seeing no deceit or panic, the tension in her shoulders finally uncoiled, and she let out a shaky breath.

"Okay, Eric... I trust you."

"Good," Eric smiled, his stomach letting out an unceremonious growl that broke the serious atmosphere. "Because I’m starving. What’s on the stove?"

"Fried rice with scallions and farm eggs," Emily said, wiping the corner of her eye with a faint, relieved laugh. "Wash up with your good hand. I’ll dish it out."

***

After a warm, quiet dinner, Eric retreated to his attic room and latched the wooden door shut.

Coal fluttered down from the exposed rafters, landing on the corner of the small pine desk. The crow cocked his head, his dark eyes locked onto Eric with sharp, hungry anticipation.

With a thought, Eric reached into his system inventory and withdrew the jagged *F-Rank Low-Grade Mana Stone*. The crimson crystal caught the amber rays of dusk filtering through the window, pulsing with a faint, cloudy warmth.

"Here’s your reward, buddy. Digest it slowly."

*Caw!*

Coal snapped the stone up in his bone-white beak, tilted his skull back, and swallowed the crystal whole in one fluid motion. A faint crimson aura flared beneath his glossy neck feathers as his internal beast core began grinding down the dense energy.

Seeing Coal settle into a restorative trance, Eric climbed onto his straw mattress, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.

He slowed his pulse, drawing the thin streams of ambient mana drifting through the room into his pores and guiding them through the seventy-two meridian pathways toward his Mana Heart.

Throughout the night, a warm, rhythmic current pulsed through his veins.

When the first rays of dawn spilled over the windowsill, Eric opened his eyes. His mind felt clear, his physical fatigue entirely gone.

He called up his personal status window.

│ STATUS PANEL

│

│ Name: Eric

│ Race: Human

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 0 (15%)

│ Talent: Appraisal (Rank E), Skill Comprehension (Rank C)

│ Skills: None

│ Contracted Beast: 1/1

A single night of concentrated meditation had advanced his baseline from 6% to 15%—a clean 9% gain.

*Nine percent in one night,* Eric analyzed, flexing his right hand. *At this rate, I’ll hit Level 1 in roughly nine to ten days of steady cultivation.*

He turned his focus toward the desk. Coal was still curled tightly atop a folded wool blanket, his chest expanding and contracting in a deep, rhythmic cycle.

Eric summoned Coal’s status screen too.

│ CONTRACTED BEAST STATUS

│

│ Name: Coal

│ Race: Bonepecker Crow

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 3 (67%)

│ Rank: D

│ Skills: Flight (Rank E), Scratch (Rank F)

*From 34% to 67% in one go,* Eric thought, his eyes lighting up. *A thirty-three percent leap from a single F-rank stone.*

If an F-rank pebble yielded that much growth, the walnut-sized *E-Rank Mana Stone* harvested from the Fleshcrawler would easily push Coal across the threshold into Level 4 by tomorrow night.

"Time to wake up, Coal," Eric murmured, gently nudging the bird’s wing. "Breakfast is ready."

*Caw~*

Coal let out a drowsy trill, shook out his glossy black plumage, and hopped up onto Eric’s uninjured right shoulder.

Eric walked downstairs into the sunlit dining hall.

The second Lily spotted him from across the room, her eyes went wide. She sprinted across the floorboards and latched onto his knee with both arms.

"Big brother! What happened to your arm?" she gasped, staring at the white composite splint.

"Just a tiny scrape from practice, sweetie," Eric said, patting her head with his right hand. "It doesn’t hurt at all, see?"

Lily puffed out her cheeks, crossing her small arms with deep suspicion. "Big brother is lying."

"I’m really not," Eric laughed, scratching his cheek. "Tell you what—why don’t you take Coal into the garden to play?"

*Caw?!*

Coal’s head whipped toward Eric with an expression of pure, unadulterated shock—as if demanding: *You’re trading me away as a distraction for a toddler?!*

Eric whistled an innocent tune, avoiding eye contact.

"Yay! Come on, Coal!" Lily beamed, gently wrapping her arms around the bird and lifting him off Eric’s shoulder.

*Caw...* Coal let out a defeated croak, slumping limply in the little girl’s grip as she carried him toward the backyard.

"Crisis averted," Eric muttered.

Within minutes, the rest of the household filtered into the kitchen.

Sunshine Home housed six children under Emily’s care. Lily was the youngest at five. After her came nine-year-old Alex, the eleven-year-old twins Jake and Mili, and twelve-year-old Mark. Eric was eighteen, while Emily carried the weight of the house at twenty-four.

Their previous caretaker had passed away three years prior, leaving Emily to shoulder the debt and keep food on the table through split shifts at a local diner, often bringing home day-old bread and leftover broth whenever the manager allowed.

Eric watched from the window as Emily tied her auburn hair into a neat ponytail, pulled on her coat, and hurried toward the front gate for her morning shift.

His fingers tightened into a steady fist at his side.

*The hard days are coming to an end. I’ll make sure of it.*