Leveling Up, Rapid Growth

Early the next morning, Leo woke up early.

After briefly stretching, he took his stone knife and left the palace, heading straight for the eastern hillside he had planned to visit yesterday.

Morning light filtered through the treetops. The mist in the forest had yet to disperse, and the air was fresh.

With yesterday's experience, his efficiency in searching for ant nests had improved considerably.

In less than an hour, he found his first target beside a pile of rocks—a red ant nest built in the gap between three huge boulders.

Leo observed it for a while and confirmed that there were no other dangerous creatures nearby.

He found a thick branch, thrust it forcefully into the nest entrance, then rapidly stirred it around.

Black-red ants poured out like a tide, but Leo was prepared this time.

He had reinforced his trouser legs and cuffs with broad leaves, making it difficult for the ants to crawl inside.

The branch swept from side to side, knocking down and crushing large numbers of ants.

The tattoo on the back of his hand continued to emit a faint warmth.

The notifications for [Life Energy +0.01] came one after another.

After clearing out the nest, Leo continued searching ahead. Over the course of the morning, he successfully destroyed three ant nests of varying sizes, raising his level progress from 31% to 68%.

During a brief rest at noon, he ate some berries he had gathered yesterday and replenished his water supply by the stream.

After his body had been strengthened, his stamina drained much more slowly. Half a day's work left him only mildly fatigued.

"At this rate, I'll level up today."

That afternoon, Leo expanded his search area. He no longer looked only for obvious mound-like ant nests on the surface; he also began watching for nests built inside rotten logs or deep underground.

As the sun slanted westward, he found the fifth ant nest of the day at the roots of a giant dead tree. This one was fairly large.

It took Leo nearly half an hour to clear it out completely.

When the last wave of ants was swept away, the tattoo on the back of his hand suddenly gave off a warmth far stronger than before.

[Life Energy +12.3]

[Level: 1 (5%)]

He had done it!

A warm current surged from the tattoo on the back of his hand and quickly flowed through his entire body.

Leo could clearly feel his muscles swell slightly, while faint crackling sounds came from his bones. After about ten seconds, the warm current gradually subsided.

He clenched his fist and could clearly feel that his strength had increased.

When he tried jumping, his body felt much lighter. He could easily leap nearly half again as high as before.

His vision had also become sharper—he could make out the veins of leaves twenty meters away.

Leo found a small tree as thick as a bowl to test his strength.

Wrapping both arms around it, he pulled with all his might—the roots loosened, soil turned over, and the tree slowly rose about three inches from the ground.

Though he still could not uproot it completely, this strength already far surpassed that of an ordinary adult.

"An all-around improvement."

That was his conclusion. It was not just strength; his speed, endurance, defense, and five senses... every aspect had improved significantly.

He recalled the descriptions of the basic qualities of Nen users in Hunter x Hunter.

Ordinary Nen users generally possessed physical strength honed through long-term training and nourished by Nen aura.

His method of directly strengthening himself through life energy might be even more efficient.

"If I reach level 25, then even without activating Nen, my physical abilities alone won't lose to those of an ordinary Nen user."

Leo calculated inwardly. That realization only strengthened his determination to level up quickly.

As the sky darkened, he returned to the palace.

That night, Leo tried making a fire. He found dry deadwood, carved a groove into it with his stone knife, then selected a hard wooden stick as a drill.

Though he was inexperienced, his enhanced strength and control made it easier to exert force.

After two hours of repeated attempts, smoke rose from the groove. He carefully added dry moss shavings and gently blew on them—

A flame sprang up.

Successfully making fire was immensely significant. Cooked food could provide more energy, drive away nocturnal beasts, and allow him to process prey hides into simple equipment.

Over the following days, Leo developed a fixed routine.

He set out at dawn and searched outward from the palace in every direction.

He focused on ant nests and the nests of other social insects, while keeping an eye out for small animals along the way—wild rabbits, field mice, and birds—which he killed whenever he came across them.

Though these prey provided relatively little life energy, it added up over time, and they also supplied meat.

His enhanced body greatly multiplied his efficiency.

Prey that once required him to approach with extreme caution could now be ambushed at far greater speed; large ant nests that once took considerable time and effort to destroy now took half as long.

Three days later, he reached level 2.

The improvement was just as obvious.

This time, he deliberately tested the numbers: his hundred-meter sprint was about two seconds faster than at level 1; a punch could leave a clear dent in a tree trunk; and he could jump from a height of five meters and land easily, with only a slight tremor in his knees.

His recovery ability had also improved dramatically.

Once, while clearing an ant nest, he was carelessly bitten by several soldier ants. The wounds stopped bleeding and scabbed over within half an hour, and by the next day they had basically healed.

Leo began making simple tools: he wove a backpack from animal hides and vines to carry more items; he dried prey tendons and attempted to make bowstrings; and he collected sharp stone flakes, fastening them to wooden shafts to make spearheads.

On the fifth day, he reached level 3.

At that point, his physical abilities had already far surpassed those of an ordinary person.

At full strength, he could leap onto a three-meter-high rock wall; he could snap arm-thick branches with his bare hands; and he could see movement thirty meters away under moonlight.

He also began encountering larger creatures.

A lynx-like beast once tried to attack him, but he killed it with a stone spear and gained 8 points of life energy—less efficient than an ant nest, but much faster.

Leo realized that as his strength grew, he could appropriately challenge higher-level prey.

He began deliberately searching for signs of medium-sized beasts while continuing to clear ant nests efficiently.

On the evening of the seventh day, after Leo cleared a large ant nest built within a rock crevice, the familiar warmth spread from the tattoo on the back of his hand.

[Life Energy +15.7]

[Level: 4 (2%)]

One week, from level 0 to level 4.

Leo stood on a hillside beneath the setting sun, looking down at the distant forest.

The changes in his body had been earth-shattering—his strength was now several times what it had been when he first arrived, while his speed, reaction time, and endurance had all improved across the board.

He tried recalling the plot of Hunter x Hunter. With these physical abilities, he had probably already surpassed the fighters on Heaven's Arena's lower floors and was approaching the level of the mid-floor combatants.

And he was only level 4. He still had a long way to go before reaching level 25 and lifting the Zetsu state.

"If I can maintain this pace..." he estimated.

But he knew full well that the life energy required to level up would definitely increase as his level rose.

Moreover, the number of ant nests in the forest was limited. He could not clear them endlessly.

He needed to prepare for the future.

He decided to expand his exploration range starting tomorrow.

On one hand, he would continue searching for ant nests. On the other, he would head in the direction marked on the map to find new sources of prey for future leveling.

The campfire crackled. Leo roasted the wild rabbit he had hunted that day, grease dripping into the flames as its aroma filled the air.

He took a bite. Crispy on the outside, tender within—with fire, his quality of life had improved drastically.

The dark-red tattoo on the back of his hand seemed to flow faintly like a living thing in the firelight.

Level 4. He still had 21 levels to go before his goal of level 25.

The road ahead remained long, but at least he had gotten off to a good start.

The next day, Leo changed his strategy.

He was no longer satisfied with ant nests and small prey. He began actively searching for large creatures.

At noon, he found his target in a valley.

It was a One-Horned Bear—nearly two meters tall at the shoulder, covered in brown-black fur, with a gray horn nearly half a meter long growing from its forehead. It was drinking by the stream, looking relaxed.

Leo hid behind a rock and observed it. With a body that size, it would definitely provide a great deal of life energy.

But the risk was high as well. The One-Horned Bear's thick fur and horn were both deadly weapons.

After weighing it for a moment, he decided to make his move.

The battle was fierce. Leo relied on his enhanced agility to circle around it, repeatedly stabbing with his stone spear, but each strike could only inflict flesh wounds.

The One-Horned Bear possessed terrifying strength, and every attack put him in grave danger.

Ten minutes later, its paw grazed Leo's left shoulder, and his bones let out a crisp crack.

The doubled pain made his vision go black, but he gritted his teeth and held on. Taking the opportunity, he drove the stone knife in his right hand into the bear's eye.

The One-Horned Bear howled in pain and fury, charging wildly. Leo was sent flying. He climbed to his feet while coughing blood and saw that the wounded bear had lost its aim, blindly crashing into the rock walls.

Suppressing the agonizing pain, he grabbed the thickest wooden spear on the ground, rushed at the One-Horned Bear from behind, and thrust it with all his strength into the back of its neck!

"Roar—!"

The One-Horned Bear let out one final wail. Its enormous body crashed to the ground, twitched a few times, and then lay still.

Leo collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath, covered in blood. His left shoulder was fractured, and he had abrasions all over his body. The doubled pain nearly made him pass out.

But a powerful warmth came from the back of his hand.

[Life Energy +45]

[Level: 4 (47%)]

One hunt had raised his progress by 45%! It far exceeded the efficiency of ant nests.

The price had been severe as well. Leo examined his injuries. He could no longer lift his left arm, so he painstakingly treated his wounds, used branches to brace his arm, and tore off part of his shirt to bandage it.

Half an hour later, he could barely stand; two hours later, his left arm could move slightly; by the time he returned to the palace before nightfall, his injuries had already healed by more than half.

"My recovery ability... is even stronger than I imagined," Leo said in surprise.

This meant he could take on higher-risk hunts. Even if he was injured, he could recover quickly without affecting his subsequent actions.

From that day onward, his hunting strategy changed completely.

He no longer relied solely on ant nests. Instead, he actively searched for large creatures: One-Horned Bears in the valleys, saber-toothed tigers in the forest, giant crocodiles in the swamps... every kind was dangerous, but they provided abundant life energy.

Of course, he still cleared any ant nests and social insect colonies he encountered along the way. Those were a stable source of gains.

The days passed one by one.

Leo became increasingly familiar with the forest.

He knew where to find specific prey, how to exploit terrain advantages, and the weaknesses and attack patterns of every creature. His combat experience accumulated rapidly.

One month later, he reached level 8.

By then, his physical abilities had reached a startling level: he could fight medium-sized beasts with his bare hands and jump from a height of ten meters without suffering a scratch.

Two months later, he reached level 12. He began challenging more dangerous areas and even deliberately entered the territories of powerful creatures.

Three months later, he reached level 16. Ordinary beasts could no longer pose a threat to him, and he needed to seek stronger prey.

At the same time, Leo discovered a pattern: as his level increased, the life energy needed to level up rose as well. That meant he needed more prey—and stronger prey.

He began systematically sweeping through every part of the secret realm, exploring every corner of the forest.

Time flew by.

Half a year later.

Somewhere in the secret realm's forest, a Rhinoceros Armor Beast the size of a small elephant crashed to the ground.

Its body was covered in hide as thick as bone plates, and ordinary attacks could barely harm it. Yet there was now a fist-sized bloody hole in its throat. It had been killed in a single strike.

Leo stood beside the corpse and flicked the blood from his hand.

He had changed enormously. His height had grown from 1.7 meters to nearly 1.85 meters. He was lean and powerfully built, his muscles sculpted in sharp lines.

His skin had turned wheat-colored from his long life in the wilderness, and several faint scars marked his body—traces left behind by six months of battle.

His gaze was as sharp as an eagle's, carrying the calmness that came only from surviving countless brushes with death.

He wore self-made leather armor pieced together from various hides, with bone plates set into vital areas. A stone knife hung at his waist, along with several bone throwing darts.

Over those six months, Leo had also deliberately trained his body. Thanks to his powerful recovery ability, he brutally tempered every part of himself and gradually adapted to the doubled pain.

The dark-red tattoo on the back of his hand gave off a faint heat.

[Life Energy +120]

[Level: 23 (10.8%)]

"Level 23," Leo murmured.

Half a year, from level 4 to level 23.

He had traveled through nearly the entire secret realm. Most of the large creatures in the forest had been hunted, while the ones that remained were comparatively powerful and beyond his ability to kill for the moment.

Now, he had to spend a great deal of time each day just to find suitable prey. His leveling speed had clearly slowed.

But his strength had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.

He had tested it: a full-strength punch could break a tree trunk as thick as his waist; he could sprint one hundred meters in under five seconds; he could see insect holes in leaves one hundred meters away; and his hearing could pick up faint sounds within a hundred meters.

His recovery ability was even more terrifying. A week ago, he had been bitten by a poisonous lizard while hunting. The venom paralyzed half his body, but it was fully metabolized after three hours, and the wound healed that same day.

"Just two more levels." Leo looked eastward, toward the secret realm's exit. "Once I reach level 25 and lift Zetsu, I can leave this place."

He shouldered the Rhinoceros Armor Beast's most valuable horn—hard material that could be used to make weapons.

On the way back to the palace, he casually cleared two small ant nests and gained a few more points of life energy.

That night, beside the campfire in the palace.

Leo roasted beast meat while polishing a newly made bone spear.

Over half a year, he had transformed the palace into a temporary base: it had a cellar for storing food, a work area for processing materials, and a resting place covered in animal hides.

"The last two levels... might take more than a month," he estimated. Suitable prey was becoming increasingly difficult to find, and sometimes he would go days without encountering a proper target.

At that moment, inside a cave at the end of the forest on the eastern side of the secret realm.

The calm seawater suddenly rippled. Ancient patterns on the rock walls lit up one by one, emitting a faint blue glow.

The light gathered together, forming a rotating gate of light in the center of the cave.

As the ripples spread, three figures emerged from the gate.

The leader was a tall, thin middle-aged man dressed in an immaculate suit, with a refined and elegant bearing.

He held a dark gray stone slab in his hand—the very one that had fallen into a town on the Ulubian Continent half a year ago.

A man and a woman followed behind him.

The man was young, wore glasses, and carried a large backpack, looking every bit the scholar.

The woman had red hair and a fit build. A short blade hung at her waist, and her eyes were alert.

"Success!" the young scholar Kaspar said excitedly. "Mr. Satotz, we really got in!"

Selena, the red-haired woman, rested a hand on her sword hilt and surveyed the surroundings warily.

"The air is circulating, and plants are growing. This secret realm is still functioning. Be careful—there may be guardian creatures."

The three activated their lighting equipment and began exploring outward.