The lights were off when he came in. Sakura wasn’t home yet.

He sighed.

So that was day one of the climber academy. He almost got expelled and then almost killed before the day was over. Was he honestly going to be able to survive the whole school term?

He put some of his things down on the living room table and then tidied up the apartment a bit.

After twenty minutes, he got started on dinner.

He had done some grocery shopping earlier in the week with Sakura, so luckily for him, every meal wasn’t going to be bacon and egg ramen.

He chopped up some onion and garlic and started sautéing them in a pot over the oven. He added some ground beef and continued sautéing. He then opened a few cans of tomatoes and threw them in as well.

Tonight’s dinner would be Pasta Bolognese.

As he threw in the spices, he thought about what he was going to do for the rest of the evening.

I’ll cook this dinner. Eat quickly. Save the rest for Sakura and then get down to my homework with the monster cores.

When supper was ready, he wolfed down his plate of pasta rapidly. He then chugged a glass of water, put his dishes in the sink, and then went to the living room to get started on his homework.

He sat cross-legged on the floor and materialized the four copper monster cores from his pouch.

He looked at the stones. They were similar, but not identical. One was quite larger than the others and some were much more weirdly shaped than the rest.

They did all have a metallic coppery hue, however.

He sighed as he lifted each one up and turned it over.

How did these things work?

He had a feeling they were important somehow. Sakura had explained to him how the tower-zone’s entire currency was based on these monster drops and the fact that other races on higher floors used these currencies as well. If the mere coins these tower monsters dropped were enough to shape whole currencies of multiple worlds, then surely these cores were just as important, if not more so.

He picked one up and held it in his hands.

He closed his eyes and channeled his mana into the fingertips that were holding the stone.

The monster core suddenly glowed, shining out light from inside of it.

Holy crap!

The monster core had absorbed his mana.

He placed the stone down and excitedly paced the living room floor.

He then sat back down and picked up the core once more.

If the core can absorb my mana, can I drain the core of its mana?

Max took a deep breath and held the copper monster core up once more.