CHAPTER 98: CHAPTER 98 - BREAKTHROUGH TO SILVER CORE!

Immediately after waking up the next morning, Logan rushed to the private breakthrough room he’d reserved the day before.

"Time to get this breakthrough started," he said, locking the doors behind him.

Without waiting any further, he pulled out two fire mana stones and five S-rank fire-type herbs from his space ring and placed them beside him.

"Alright, let’s calm down," Logan said, exhaling sharply as he sat down. "Focus."

"I need to focus."

Closing his eyes, Logan waited until his heartbeat calmed down.

Then, he began the process.

Forcing out mana threads one by one, he felt the familiar ache in his core as they swam around freely.

’It burns,’ Logan thought, gritting his teeth as he pushed through the pain. ’But this pain is nothing compared to losing an arm or crashing into that ice lake.’

His body temperature kept rising, making him wonder if the new skinsuit could even handle the breakthrough.

The pain from his burning core steadily increased, and even his skin began to sting from the rising heat.

His skin slowly turned a bright yellow color, as sweat evaporated before it even left his body.

’That’s it,’ Logan thought after more than fifteen minutes, relieved that his core was now completely filled with pure fire mana threads.

’Filling up the smaller core was definitely easier last time,’ he thought, his eyes wide from the burning sensation coming from his core.

Glancing at the herbs and stones, Logan acted fast.

He grabbed two of the herbs, stuffed them into his mouth, and immediately crushed one of the fire-type mana stones.

’There’s no point in any of this if I don’t push myself to my absolute limits,’ he thought, gritting his teeth as the violent mana ran through his body.

Grabbing the remaining herbs and crushing the final mana stone, Logan felt like his body was about to explode.

"Concentrate," he said, clenching his fists as he started expanding the walls from his mana core to their absolute limits.

Two minutes of agonizing pain passed as the phoenix fire inside him mended the cracks in his core as it expanded.

’This is it,’ Logan thought, feeling the absolute limit of his core’s size.

Without any hesitation, he quickly forced the remaining mana from all the herbs and stones inside the remaining cracks.

The mana threads rushed into the cracks on his core, slowly strengthening the walls, changing their colors from a dark silver to a pure bright silver.

’Now,’ he thought, his eyes filled with anticipation.

"System," Logan said, his eyes on the glowing system panel. "Redeem five billion dollars!"

[Redeeming five billion USD...]

As he kept pushing mana into the healing cracks in his core, Logan felt his focus start to slip.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations! You have successfully awakened an SSS-rank Abyssal Raven’s Undead Affinity.]

Logan’s eyes widened as his heart skipped a beat.

He didn’t have time to think before an extremely deep, invasive cold went through his body.

Nothing touched him, but the cold sent shivers through his body as if his soul had been directly affected.

Logan gasped for air, but he couldn’t breathe.

His gasping slowly twisted into a suffocating silence, like everything else around him.

Inside his core, a strange gray swirling circle appeared—something Logan had never seen before.

It pulsed once, then it vanished again.

In its place, a pitch-black energy mass remained, right beside his phoenix fire affinity.

The pitch-black mass let out black mana threads that went straight into his core’s walls, strengthening them to their fullest and completing his breakthrough to the silver core.

It didn’t stop there though.

The black mass pulsed once, releasing mana—not just inside his core, but also in a ring around him, causing bone-like spikes and creatures to rise from the floor.

Countless silent whispers echoed through Logan’s mind, completely pulling him out of his focus.

His phoenix fire affinity responded, also releasing mana into his core and around him.

"Fuck," Logan shouted, feeling a mix of excruciating cold and extreme heat at the same time while also hearing the whispers.

Waves of black and red fire engulfed him, his clothes and even his new skin suit melting away from the sheer power of both forces.

Their clashes spread throughout the room, setting fire to the floor and the bone-like structures there.

"Stop!" Logan shouted, blood dripping from his nose as his body was torn between two clashing elements.

Then—complete silence.

The whispers in his head stopped completely as a third flame was born inside Logan’s core. A black-red fire spread outwards, disintegrating everything it touched.

Logan collapsed onto the ground, gasping wildly.

Both his fire affinity and his undead affinity settled down quietly within his core.

His fingers twitched on the floor, steam still rising from his scorched skin.

Even with blurred vision and a hazy mind, Logan could feel a raw power deep inside his body.

It was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before.

"...I’m still alive," he muttered, staring at the ceiling. "Amazing."

He rolled onto his side with much effort, molten pieces of stone sticking to his back.

The breakthrough room around him had practically been destroyed.

The walls were charred, chunks of the floor had melted, and pieces of bone were scattered everywhere.

"Two mutated SSS-rank affinities," Logan mumbled, looking at his trembling hands. "Fire and the extremely rare Undead type."

One burned brightly, like the sun.

The other swallowed the light like a black hole.

"I need clothes," he said, staring down at his charred naked body.

All he had left was the space ring around his finger, despite it also looking charred.

Taking out some spare clothes he’d put in after the dungeon incident, Logan couldn’t help but sit down on the floor for a little.

Raising a hand, he conjured a small bone spike inside his hand.

"What an amazing affinity," he said, creating a small skeleton creature that followed his every command.

A large grin spread across his face as he thought about his future.

"The duel with Derek will be an incredibly fun time," he said, laughing. "I hope he’s trying to pull something shady."

"At least that would make the fight interesting."