Before the breakthrough, Logan's skin temperature had never been an issue, sitting at around 104 Fahrenheit. Now, his watch showed 158 Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to cause third-degree burns on contact.
Walking back to the living room, Logan crashed on his couch, exhausted.
Silas and Edric both sat down on chairs near him with a cup of coffee in their hands.
"Have you thought about going to the university?" Edric asked, stirring his coffee.
Sitting up, Logan glanced over in Edric's direction.
"Yes," he answered. "I have two more questions though."
"Two more questions?" Edric asked, curious.
"Let's start with the most important question," Logan said, massaging his temples. "How am I supposed to manage the company from the university?"
Edric looked surprised for a second but quickly smiled.
"That won't be an issue," he said with a calm smile. "I can still send you documents remotely, and you don't have to be here to make decisions."
Logan nodded, staring at the ground for a second.
'I suppose it's possible, but it could lower morale from the employees and the documents sent to me could be altered,' Logan deduced the risks. 'Although I don't have to worry too much about documents being altered with Edric and Silas here.'
"Alright, that makes sense." Logan nodded, making up his mind. "Then my second question: how am I supposed to pass the entrance exam when I have no combat experience?"
Edric opened his mouth immediately, but Silas raised a hand in front of him, shutting him up.
"I'll help you with combat experience," Silas answered, serious.
Edric looked at Silas, confused, not understanding what had just happened.
"I understand that you have little to no training," Silas continued, smiling. "From now on, I'll be helping you with physical combat since I can't help you much with your affinity."
"As for that entrance exam?" Silas said, waving his hand down as if dismissing the entire exam. "Most of the years it's an affinity check and, either a monster hunt or sparring competition."
Logan nodded, but immediately wanted to ask another question.
"Won't I get in trouble if they check my affinity?" he asked.
That question made both Silas and Edric think.
"That's true," Silas muttered, looking at the ceiling. "A normal affinity check isn't going to cut it."
"Then we'll just have to pay for a private test," Edric said, firm.
The normal affinity testing by the university had always intentionally been done publicly in order to boost the reputation of high-affinity students. They'd never had any issues since SSS-rank students were usually taken the minute their talent was tested in schools.
That was the real danger. The moment his SSS-rank was revealed, the government would take notice. And it wouldn't take more than an hour for rival companies to be desperate enough to send a group of A-ranks, maybe even S-ranks, to launch suicide attacks.
'It won't be a problem as long as you have enough money,' Logan thought, smiling.
"It'll cost around 200 million dollars," Edric continued, sighing. "But it's worth it."
"200 million?" Logan asked, shocked.
"Yes, the school is strict with special privileges," Silas responded. "They want everything to be as fair as possible and prevent rich kids with bad affinities from taking up slots."
"Wow," Logan said aloud, leaning back slightly.
"Even if you undergo a private test, you still have to show combat experience during the test and later on inside the actual school," Silas added, smiling wildly. "So don't think you can get away from our training."
"I was never planning to," Logan said, also smiling.
"So you agree to go to the university?" Edric asked for confirmation.
"Yes," Logan responded immediately.
Hearing that, Edric's expression lightened up.
"I'll get started on the process then," he said, standing up.
"Yeah, rest up, kiddo," Silas said, also standing up. "We'll start our training tomorrow morning."
After the door shut, Logan was left in silence.
Exhausted, he walked back to the living room.
'So I'll be going to a university, huh,' he thought. 'It's worth considering the possible benefits I can gain from it.'
At the same time, many other thoughts ran through his head.
'I wonder if the investigation has already found something,' he thought, curious.
Quickly shaking his head, Logan sat down on his couch. 'It's only been a day—how could they have found anything already?'
Opening his system interface, Logan looked at the cooldown.
[Cooldown: 01:08:46:21]
'Seems like I need to withdraw some more money tomorrow,' Logan thought, sighing.
'How much should I do this time?' he wondered.
Naturally, he knew he couldn't do a billion once again.
'That would be way too suspicious,' Logan thought, shaking his head.
Thinking some more about it, Logan decided he'd go with a moderate 100 million dollars tomorrow.
'It'll show me the differences more clearly,' Logan thought. 'While at the same time, it's still enough money to give me something of value.'
Despite it still being somewhat early in the morning, Logan went to his bed, exhausted from the breakthrough.
Looking up at the ceiling, it didn't take long until he fell asleep.
While Logan slept, Edric had contacted a representative of the university and sent the money to the school without any hesitation.
Waking up late in the afternoon, Logan no longer felt tired.
'That was much needed,' he thought, until his stomach rumbled.
'I didn't eat at all for the past few hours,' he thought, scratching his belly.
Sending a message to Edric, it didn't take long before he had a few plates with beast meat sitting in front of him.
But that wasn't all. Edric had also placed several strange-looking bottles on the table.
"What are these bottles?" Logan asked, confused.
"These?" Edric said, pointing. "You can't drink normal water until your body temperature goes down since it would just evaporate."
"These are special hydration liquids made for hot-terrain dungeons, where normal water evaporates in seconds," he added. "I figured you'd need them from now on."
Logan understood and nodded.
'I didn't even think about that,' he thought, surprised.
Seeing Logan's expression, Edric smiled before leaving the room.