Whats free?

Sun became engrossed in learning about mana and all its abilities. 

The hours eventually passed and Sun finally managed to get himself out of the books once his stomach grumbled and he noticed the time. 

His schedule returned to being just like before but this time Sun always spent a large part of his evenings practically living in the library. 

The information might have seemed censored and whatnot but at least it allowed him to understand far more than by simply doing nothing about his situation. Having learned as much as he could from Mana.

He understood how people awakened their mana. Surprisingly, it was through a magical process with a mana crystal. 

A type of crystal formed from the concentrated mana taking on physical substance. The thing though, was it was freaking expensive. Nearly costing $100'000 for the cheapest one.

Sun would have to toil for a decade at his current job to get a hold of it. Which clearly was too long for just awakening his mana. After awakening it, he would have to practice and get used to it and naturally increase his mana capacity as well. 

Though a decade seems long, with his cheat-like UP points coming in every two days a decade's worth would probably make him a supermutant at that point. 

"Sigh. Guess there's only one choice. What's free to start?" Sun mumbled as he started considering his options. 

After close to two weeks spent in the library, he had sorted through most of the information on what different things were like in this new world. 

'Considering the options are limited, I need to start getting involved in something that requires little to no funds to start, a good return on investment if I can get to a standard level in order to accumulate funds and finally, it doesn't require mana to start.' Sun thought as he classified the information from his foray into the library. 

Finally, after a few moments of pondering, his superhuman intelligence led him to three choices. In front of him lay three books. 

[How to care for and grow magical plants]

A good choice considering that he just has to nurture magical plants that hold value and some of the seeds can be bought for dirt cheap while the only other costs are maintenance costs for things like fertilizer. Slightly longer turnaround time, but the cost of a seed versus the value of a magical herb or plant that is fully grown is ridiculously well paying. 

He could probably use his ever-growing intelligence stat to optimize as well and somehow get some really good profits down the line. Getting access to his mana awakening that much faster. 

After making his considerations he moved on to the next book.

[Guide to repair 101 home appliances]

Another good choice with the only cost being the tools needed to perform the repairs. He could get a side business with the repairs he does and by abusing his stats he could take off and eventually specialize in the higher-paying gigs which only require him to understand the different machines and apparatus to repair them. Which with his set of skills would be a breeze. 

However, it seemed and felt a little boring. He wasn't the mech type of guy at the end of the day and considering he was in a fantasy-type setting, he wanted to stick to the fantasy-type living. After all, the whole goal of this endeavour was to gain access to mana. 

You would expect getting access to mana to be something that was a lot simpler but considering the potential of mana users, the barrier to entry was specifically made difficult in order to conserve a mage's reputation and benefits. 

Finally the last book.

[Basics and Fundamentals of Runic Inscriptions]

This last book intrigued him the most considering this was straight fantasy. Sure magical plants and machinery were interesting but runes and the like were always considered a mysterious and powerful thing regardless of the setting. 

They would always be seen in ruins, on mysterious artifacts and weapons, built into cities for protection, and inscribed into arrays to form magical phenomena. The possibilities were near endless. 

The decision was clear. 'I'll go down the route of runic inscriptions considering I only need a specialized tool that has mana-rich ink to inscribe with and the returns are much higher depending on the skill level. Aside from that, I might as well grow a few magical plants as well just to have a backup plan. Can't go wrong with something like that and if anything, I'll use it as my calming activity to keep some peace of mind.' Sun thought his plan through and finally made his decision.

He was still surprised considering how mana is supposed to be the beginning of everything and how difficult it was to awaken it, he was upset at the available options.

He was sure there were natural ways and even alternatives to awakening mana as its impossible mana crystals were the only source but the limited information available to the public made it clear that mana crystals were the way to go. 

He was sure there were also organisations that helped awaken with their own ways considering the costs of the crystals but then again, he wanted to be free for a while longer before having to join anything. 

The magical part of this world still seemed a little cut off from him but with his newfound knowledge of the matter, he was sure everything would work out fine. 

With his mind made up, he started delving heavily into the two books he chose and started finding anything related to the two to increase his wealth of knowledge on the matter.

After all, knowledge was power and having boosted his intelligence so high, this was the correct way to go. 

As such the days started passing with the routine being solely focused on work, runic inscriptions and reading about growing plants. It was a nice way to pass the time, and everything he started learning was amazing in its own way. 

The variety of plants that existed in this new world was indescribably amazing. From things that simply purified air to plants that could take down a whole village. The runic inscriptions were more simplified as only higher-level runes and inscriptions had actual power over nature but the ones he came across were splendid in their own right.

A cooling rune, a warming one, a water purifier. The study of simple runes seemed extensive and considering the effects and value for the general populace he could understand why even these were allowed to be spread.