"You guys continue to enjoy. I have a few things to take care of."

Soren excused himself from the living room after they finished eating and headed to the bathroom.

A quick shower washed away the final remnants of the courtroom tension, and after changing into comfortable training clothes, he headed straight into the training room to sort his gains, exercise, and cultivate.

Sitting comfortably on the mattress, he lined up the spoils of his recent exploits beside him: a manual, two rings, his phone with the account screen glowing, a document folder, a set of keys, and a spear.

He reached for the keys and the document folder first.

Inspecting the paperwork, he skimmed the official lease agreement granting him full access to the apartment for a year. The Bureau had handed over the keys as a swift combination of compensation and reward for the recent crisis.

Recalling the person who had pulled the strings behind the scenes to fast-track the bureaucracy, his lips curled up into a smile.

’I should invite her for dinner someday.’

Sister Zoe had truly gone out of her way for them.

Yesterday, she unexpectedly showed up alongside a formal representative from the Bureau to discuss a few matters regarding the incident. Everything was going smoothly until an unexpected interruption threw a wrench into the meeting.

Aunt Clara, who had temporarily gone back to their previous home to fetch some clothes for him and Ethea, had returned early with bad news.

The landlord of the old house had suddenly shown up, aggressively demanding the payment for both the last month and the current month, threatening to throw all their belongings out onto the street immediately if he didn’t get the cash.

Soren had been completely caught off guard by the sudden demand, but the pieces quickly clicked together in his mind. It seemed his cheap former family hadn’t paid a single dime for the place when they dropped them off, completely abandoning them without a word.

Sighing at their absolute pettiness, Soren had pulled out his phone, fully prepared to just transfer the missing money to avoid any further headaches. However, before he could press send, Zoe had raised a hand and asked him to wait.

She then immediately took the Bureau representative outside to discuss things privately in the corridor. Soren hadn’t been privy to what she said, or what kind of leverage she used, but when they walked back into the room a few minutes later, they presented him with this exact solution.

Naturally, Soren hadn’t refused. In fact, he had already been planning to find a new place to live anyway.

But this... a high-end, heavily secured apartment like this was something he truly hadn’t expected.

With a quiet sigh, he carefully put the document folder and the keys away into his mental inventory.

Next, his eyes landed on the two rings resting on the mattress.

The first one was obviously given to him by Senior Sunless Emperor, a priceless treasure that required no further thought. The other, however, was a C-rank item gifted to him by the academy as part of his rewards for the mission, alongside the spear resting right beside it.

Soren shifted his gaze to the weapon. It was a sturdy, beautifully crafted C-rank spear called Blackfrost. His previous weapon had ended up completely broken during the intense struggles within the gate, making this new arrival a perfect, timely replacement.

With a satisfied hum, he picked up his phone, the screen illuminating his current account balance: exactly 853,500 credits.

’Hmm...’

He quickly started calculating.

He had already accumulated over 150,000 credits after diving into the second circle gates prior to the mission. On top of that, he received a flat 100,000 credits as a direct reward for completing the academy mission. The entire remaining amount came from selling off the mana cores he had harvested from the drakelings inside the gate and splitting it with Ryan.

In fact, the drakeling boss’s core alone had fetched a staggering 800,000 credits on the market.

Compared to the low-level slime boss cores he used to sell for a meager 5,000 credits, this was an absolute fortune. The sheer difference in value was staggering, a vivid reminder of just how lucrative high-risk gates could be if one managed to survive them.

Still, he hadn’t been able to keep the entire sum.

He had immediately used a portion of it to settle the old landlord’s demands, paying off the rent with a bit extra just to ensure the man would leave them alone and never bother them again.

Following that, a significant chunk had gone toward paying off the hospital bills and clearing out any lingering medical debts. He also had to allocate a decent amount for the various legal fees, administrative charges, and miscellaneous expenses that came with processing the gate incident and finalizing their sudden relocation.

Yet, even after squaring all his debts, the final number glowing on the screen made his lips curl upward into a wide smile. He couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.

’We’re rich...’

’Hehe...’

For years, he had been scraping by, desperately calculating how to survive the next week. Now, looking at a sum that could easily secure their future, the heavy, invisible weight that had crushed his chest for as long as he could remember finally evaporated completely.

"Hehe~"

He chuckled again, a genuine, unfettered laugh escaping him as he stared at the glowing digits. Only after a good while did he force the massive grin off his face, shaking his head at his own reaction.

"Get a hold of yourself, Soren," he muttered under his breath.

Clicking the power button to shut off the screen, he tossed the phone onto the mattress.

He closed his eyes and took a few long, deep breaths, letting the cool air of the training room steady his racing heart until he finally calmed down.

Leaning back, he couldn’t help but reflect on how right his instincts had been. It was an incredibly good decision to painstakingly harvest those cores back then, even while exhausted.

They didn’t just serve as absolute, undeniable proof of their brutal struggle inside that gate, but they also laid the financial foundation he so desperately needed to protect his new life.