’A lot has happened these past few weeks,’ Logan thought, standing up.
"Um, Logan," a boy with chaotic hair said, walking up to him. "Do you w—want to go train with me later?"
Looking at Ethan, Logan smiled.
"No, sorry, I can’t today," he answered, shaking his head with a warm smile. "You could ask Grant though. I’m sure he’s more than willing."
"A—Alright," Ethan nodded, continuing over to Grant and the others.
’He’s gotten a lot closer with us,’ Logan thought, satisfied. ’My reputation has spread positively as well, with multiple of his friends asking for the same.’
He didn’t just hand Ethan’s friends money though. Instead, he had his legal board member, Marissa Caldwell, draft some very simple contracts.
’They either have to help the company after graduation or join it fully to receive sponsorships,’ Logan thought.
’I’m glad Ethan signed the contract with no problems either,’ Logan thought, remembering when he’d shown him a deal for more resources that required him to officially join the company after university
’Just some simple but fair terms,’ he thought with a smile.
"I’ll see all of you later again," Logan said, waving to Grant and the others.
He turned around and left the mana control class, heading straight to his room.
’The school schedule is pretty nice,’ Logan thought, smiling. ’One or two classes a day, each between one and three hours long.’
He’d really been enjoying his time at the university.
’It’s a lot better than just being caged inside the Mercer Headquarters,’ he thought, whistling softly as he wandered through the corridors.
When he arrived back in his room, he opened his messages.
’I’ve received back so many reports,’ Logan thought, satisfied. ’I’ll have to forward them all to Edric though.’
In the past few weeks, he’d shared his plans with Edric and Silas, surprising both of them.
’They both thought it was wise for me to do this separately from the main business,’ Logan thought, as he started forwarding the reports.
’Edric advised me to hire another manager for it though,’ he thought. ’It’s understandable since his workload can’t infinitely increase.’
After forwarding the documents to Edric, he started reading through the management summaries the researchers included in their reports.
’It’ll take a day or two to read through all of them though,’ Logan thought, glancing at the 84 different reports he’d gotten back.
After three hours of reading, Logan had finished 20 summaries.
"Most were immediate green flags," Logan mumbled. "But there’ve been quite some issues with transportation and recipes."
’Since I plan to open over 500 locations in America and 500 more spread throughout the world right away, the transportation can get tricky,’ he thought, glancing at a map of America. ’The meat has to be fresh upon arrival after all.’
But the transportation issue was still light compared to the problem with chefs.
’I need to get multiple people that can prepare the food in each location,’ he thought.
’And hiring professional chefs at a fast-food chain?’ Logan thought. ’That’s never going to earn me profit.’
Logan sunk into thought, analyzing the food preparation report in great detail.
"Technically, I don’t need to hire great chefs," Logan muttered, staring at the screen. "If I make the recipes simple enough that even a teenager can follow them, I can just hire anyone."
That alone would be great publicity since it would open up jobs for people with barely any skills.
Swiping away the messages, Logan’s eyes widened as he looked at the time.
"Shit, shit, shit," he shouted, jumping up. "Amara is going to kill me."
He quickly changed into his training clothes before rushing out his room.
He sped through the corridors, descending two sets of stairs to reach the sparring facilities.
"Room 13, room 13," Logan repeated, scanning the walls.
’There it is.’
Taking a sharp turn, Logan scanned his student ID against the wall and entered the sparring room.
A tall, tanned girl with long black hair tied into a ponytail and an athletic, hourglass-like figure stood inside with her arms crossed.
"Well, well, look who finally took the liberty to show up."
"I’m sorry, Amara," Logan said, scratching his head with a meek smile. "I completely forgot the time."
Amara shook her head, pointing a glaive at him.
"That is no excuse."
"It won’t happen again," Logan said, raising his hands in resignation.
Amara contemplated for a moment before giving a nod. "Alright, pick up a glaive."
’Thank God,’ Logan thought, silently letting out a sigh of relief.
He’d asked Erik, who had been assigned to him by the SSS-rank, to find him someone experienced with a glaive among the upperclassmen.
Grabbing a glaive off the weapon rack, Logan turned around with a smile.
That smile, however, quickly faded when he saw the wide grin on Amara’s face.
’This is not a good day for me,’ he thought. ’She definitely is not going to go easy.’
"Are you ready?" Amara asked, grinning wildly as she got into a combat stance.
"With or without mana?" Logan asked back, also getting into a proper stance.
"Doesn’t matter," she said, dashing towards Logan.
’Mana it is then,’ Logan thought.
His skin turned a deep red color as the Flaming Body technique kicked in, boosting his strength.
’Let’s make the best of it,’ he thought, dashing forward to meet her.
Seeing Logan use his mana, Amara’s smile grew even wider, summoning lightning under her feet to boost her speed.
Swiping her glaive horizontally through the air, a large lightning arc shot towards Logan.
Logan ducked immediately, his hair standing up from the static that flew over his head.
"Good reaction," he heard behind him.
Spinning around, Logan poured large amounts of mana into his glaive, causing it to change color from red to a deep orange.
Amara sent another lightning arc towards him, this time diagonally.
’I can’t dodge this,’ Logan thought, concentrating as he swung his glaive down.
A deep orange arc flew through the air, colliding with the lightning arc.
After bright flash, his orange arc was obliterated by the lightning arc that sped in his direction.
Logan gripped his glaive tightly, receiving the massive weight from the lightning attack head-on.
After a few seconds of enduring the immense weight from the attack, the lightning arc dissipated.
Before he could even register what had happened, a sharp blow swept his legs out from under him, slamming him to the ground.
"You did better this time," Amara said, standing over him. "The arc your glaive sent was smooth this time, and the temperature seems to have increased by a lot."
"Still, you need to be far better aware of your surroundings."
"This isn’t fair," Logan protested, puffing on the ground. "You are almost a Platinum Core and you expect me to take these attacks."
"That wasn’t the point," she said, sitting down beside him. "You were so focused on my attack that you didn’t notice I’d long since disappeared behind it."
Logan fell silent, nodding awkwardly as he stared at her.
Both of them fell silent for a moment before Amara stood up.
"Let me know whenever you want to go again," she said. "This time we won’t be using mana and we’ll be focusing on polishing your techniques."