The Rewards of Jungling

Staring at the **man howling in the tree before him, Tahm felt a wave of revulsion.

I was the one who inexplicably got blown up while spacing out, so how did this turn into me being the pervert? And I'm a black-skinned frog—what unspeakable things could I even do to you? Could I use my tongue?

Ugh. His tongue? Tahm was suddenly disgusted by his own imagination. He slapped his forehead hard, trying to scatter the bizarre images that had appeared in his mind.

Ahem. This naked man was a Konoha shinobi, so the best plan was to leave. With that thought, Tahm hurriedly turned and disappeared into the depths of the jungle.

Looking back on his month of jungling, Tahm had indeed gained quite a lot. First, the increase in experience had allowed him to reach level 5 over the past month, and he had also unlocked two of Tahm's innate skills: Giant Tongue Lash: deals damage and applies a slow to the first target hit; targets with three stacks of An Acquired Taste are also stunned.

The other skill was Thick Skin. Passive: a portion of the damage taken is converted into gray health. When the gray health begins to decay, a portion of his health is restored. Active: converts the gray health into a shield lasting three seconds.

With these two skills, Tahm had not only gained another means of controlling enemies, but also made his already substantial health pool much more durable.

The greatest benefit brought by leveling up was not merely unlocking skills, but fundamentally improving the essence of Tahm's life. Every time he gained a level, his health and chakra increased visibly, and he could also feel his mental strength, chakra control, speed, power, and five senses improving across the board.

After leveling up, Tahm clearly felt that the bottleneck in his cultivation had vanished. Every training session now brought visible improvement and progress. At present, Tahm's visible stats had reached the following level:

Health: 2532 Regeneration: 18 per second (average jōnin health: 3000)

Chakra: 1220 Regeneration: 10 per second (average jōnin chakra: 2000)

Overall Combat Power: 232 (average jōnin overall combat power: 300)

Judging from the data he could see, Tahm's strength was still slightly inferior to that of a high-level jōnin. However, Tahm knew that the system's overall combat power was calculated solely from basic physical attributes, while he still possessed various bizarre skills and a data-based body governed by laws of its own. This gave him absolute confidence that he could remain undefeated against a jōnin. After all, the Shinobi World was not a place where only physical attributes mattered. Otherwise, Kumogakure would have unified the Shinobi World long ago.

With his current attributes, he still had tremendous room for growth. He was only level 5 and had not even reached the cultivation bottleneck for that level, yet he already possessed physical abilities close to those of a jōnin. The maximum level, however, was 18. If he could reach that height, then with physical strength alone, he could probably punch Madara Uchiha and kick Kaguya, right?

However, Tahm was not very satisfied with his gains in gold. He had obtained 28 gold from killing the giant bear the first time, so he had assumed that after a month of jungling and development, he would be able to save up for a legendary item.

Instead, he discovered that both gold and experience rewards were related to the enemy's strength, and the system was even stingier with gold rewards. That bear was practically the king of the forest, yet it was worth only 28 gold. The smaller tigers and giant spiders were worth only a few gold each. After clearing the entire Forest of Death, he had earned only a little over 900 gold in a month.

The monsters here were not like the endlessly respawning creatures in a game. The more Tahm hunted, the fewer they became, and the smarter they grew. They had already reached the point where they would flee the moment they caught Tahm's scent. As a result, Tahm's income fell day by day.

Looking at his funds, which had not even reached four digits, Tahm pondered for a long time before finally deciding to buy a pair of Ionian Boots of Lucidity: increased movement speed and reduced skill cooldowns. He mainly relied on his skills as trump cards now, so the Ionian Boots of Lucidity, which could reduce skill cooldowns, were undoubtedly the best choice.

Tahm focused on the icon of the boots and silently thought, Purchase! In an instant, a pair of blue shoes suddenly appeared in his hands.

Ugh... how was he supposed to put these on? Looking at the tiny shoes in his hands, Tahm was a little dazed.

He tried to slip the shoes onto his feet, and they suddenly transformed and extended on their own, wrapping around his frog feet like liquid before solidifying into a pair of strange boots.

The moment he put them on, Tahm felt as if his body had become much lighter. He could clearly feel the reaction speed of every part of his body accelerating considerably. With one step, he covered several meters, and his agility increased dramatically. At the same time, after using several skills, he could see that their cooldowns had been noticeably reduced. He had to admit, it was an extraordinary feeling for a single pair of shoes to bring such a significant increase in strength.

But he was clearly a large black-skinned frog with no clothes on at all. Wearing nothing but a pair of shoes looked inexplicably ridiculous.

Wait. Had he been running around naked this whole time? Tahm, who had regained human thought patterns, suddenly felt embarrassed. No, he was Tahm now. Tahm didn't wear clothes, so how could it be called running around naked?

After some self-hypnosis, Tahm still shifted his attention to the comical appearance of his feet. Then he suddenly remembered, Don't I have equipment slots? As soon as the thought arose, the shoes on his feet instantly vanished, and an icon of a pair of shoes appeared in his equipment bar. The enhancement effect on Tahm's body did not disappear, either.

Huh? They still worked when worn directly instead of being placed in an equipment slot? Tahm suddenly imagined carrying a dozen Infinity Edges on his back once he had enough money. Wouldn't I be able to ascend to the heavens?

The moment the idea of exploiting a loophole appeared, Tahm heard the system's active notification: The maximum number of items each person can possess is six. Carrying them in any form cannot increase this limit.

The aloof system only spoke up on its own at times like this, just to crush Tahm's various fantasies.

So be it. Tahm was a contented person. The feeling of growing stronger every day over the past month had allowed him to genuinely experience the protagonist treatment of cheat-enabled leveling that Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke enjoyed. The level system that could improve the essence of his life, the miraculous equipment purchasable with gold, and the mysterious Favorability System that could grant skill rewards—these three cheats had clearly pointed Tahm toward the path and direction of becoming stronger. They had given him the confidence to one day face off directly against bosses such as Madara Uchiha, who was as powerful as a god or demon.

Time to go home. He had been returning hurriedly to the Hyuga household late every night for the past month, then going out hunting again early each morning. He had indeed been neglecting Hinata. Since he had happened to run into a strange naked chūnin today, he might as well go back early and cook Hinata a proper meal. With that thought, Tahm's feet seemed to sprout wings. His enormous body burst into an eerie speed, pulling one after another of his afterimages through the air.