Having systematically studied the wizard system, Leo now focused more on analyzing, organizing, and improving the experience passed down to him, then making it his own.
Questioning had become Leo's most habitual way of thinking!
Simply put, Benji's experience was no longer of much use to Leo.
Leo truly found it hard to accept vague knowledge based solely on experience and intuition, without calculations, analysis, or experimental data to support it.
He trusted the data he obtained through experiments more!
A month later, Leo's tonsils finished evolving and could continuously release toxins to attack his body's cells.
The side effects had also appeared: the toxins' attacks would permanently reduce his stamina by 5% and his strength attribute by 3%. Leo could feel that his previously full strength attribute of 50 points was now only 48.5, with a corresponding permanent reduction in attack power.
But compared with the rate of bodily evolution stimulated by the modified tonsils, this small loss of strength and attack power was entirely tolerable.
The second side effect was that he had to ingest a certain amount of toxins periodically to maintain the total toxin supply in his tonsils.
After explaining everything clearly to Gru, Leo soon performed the modification on him.
Gru's body was extraordinarily strong, and the vitality of his flesh exceeded Leo's imagination. The Lancoxin was cleared away the instant it was injected into his tonsils. Leo had to increase the total toxin dose a hundredfold to complete the modification.
By then, it was already Leo's sixth year in Tiyama City.
Leo knew nothing about the situation outside Tiyama City. Even if Gru knew, he did not tell him. Leo lived very comfortably in Tiyama City.
Here, he had Samatchi to discuss knowledge with, endless experiments to conduct, and could use the materials he had purchased at Purple Flame Academy before leaving to brew potions. His days were particularly fulfilling.
Especially with the toxin stimulation from his tonsils, the Electric Shock Rune Array, and the fourfold Gravity Rune Array, his body was constantly strengthening under these three forms of passive stimulation.
His attack power appeared not to have increased, remaining at 200 points, but Leo knew that once he removed the gravity restriction, his attack power already exceeded 400 points.
In the seventh year, Leo inscribed a High-Temperature Rune Array on himself. When activated with mana, it could produce temperatures of up to 400 degrees Celsius, enough to burn Leo to charcoal within three hours.
Of course, Leo could not set the temperature to 400 degrees Celsius. He kept it at only 200 degrees Celsius to train his body's passive evolution under high temperatures.
At this point, Leo had four active methods of passive improvement on his body: the High-Temperature Rune Array, the fourfold Gravity Rune Array, the Electric Shock Rune Array, and the toxin stimulation from his tonsils.
Countless times, Gru had looked at Leo and simply shaken his head. Leo had thought Gru was dissatisfied with him, but Gru said nothing and just stared straight at him.
Leo was now a little afraid of Gru—not of the torment of sparring with him, but of the way Gru looked at him.
In the ninth year, Leo's physical toughness reached the threshold for bearing another rune array, and he inscribed a Frost Rune Array on himself.
The High-Temperature Rune Array and Frost Rune Array could not be activated simultaneously, so the number of passive improvement arrays Leo could maintain was still four.
By the tenth year, Gru had essentially stopped seeking Leo out to spar and instead let him train on his own.
One day, Gru came to find Leo, wearing wizard robes for once, and said very formally, "Although you are still very immature on your path as a wizard, you already possess a wizard's heart. You must walk the rest of the road yourself. May you reach level one soon."
Gru held out a three-meter-long greatsword with a thick spine to Leo.
"A Body Refinement Wizard must have a weapon of his own. You have graduated. This greatsword is my graduation gift to you."
Leo bowed respectfully and accepted it with both hands. The instant the greatsword entered his hands, every muscle in his body tensed.
So heavy.
It weighed between 350 and 400 kilograms.
"Thank you, Teacher Gru."
Strictly speaking, Gru was not Leo's teacher on the wizard's path. Rather, Gru had accepted a mission from Purple Flame Academy to teach Leo body refinement. Their relationship was one of mutual benefit.
But the greatsword Gru had given him today showed that Gru truly had taught Leo as his own student.
"This sword isn't particularly valuable, but it will be enough for you throughout your time as a Wizard Apprentice."
"Whether you become an elemental wizard or a Body Refinement Wizard in the future, I hope you never forget your original aspiration. That is the meaning of your existence," Gru said meaningfully.
"Rest assured, Teacher. I won't forget."
Graduating meant Leo could allocate his time entirely as he pleased. Gru would no longer arrange training plans for him.
Leo knew why Gru had chosen this moment to let him graduate: just yesterday, his body's defense had reached 100 points.
This had originally been the objective Leo needed to accomplish during his twenty-year garrison assignment!
Yet Leo had met Gru's requirements in only ten years. In Gru's eyes, although Leo's strength was still immature, his foundation had been laid, and he was entirely capable of cultivating alone.
Excessive interference from him would have a worse effect on Leo. This was a great taboo for wizards, so it was better to let Leo cultivate alone!
At the foot of a mountain a hundred li outside Tiyama City,
An energy crystal bobbed up and down in Leo's hand. Under the sunlight, the many-faceted crystal shone with multicolored light.
Leo stood bare-chested, with the three-meter greatsword Gru had given him as a graduation gift planted beside him.
Energy crystals contained tremendous energy and were the finest cultivation aids. Naturally, they were also the best treasures for beasts to evolve. No beast could resist the temptation of an energy crystal, just as no man who had gone thirty years without a woman could refuse a breathtaking beauty.
"Roar!"
Sure enough, within a mere ten breaths, an eager, muffled roar rang out.
Amid the howling wind, an enormous beast suddenly leaped down the mountain toward Leo, its coldly gleaming claws aimed straight at his head.
If they connected, Leo's head would be sliced into four pieces.
"Hmph!"
With a cold snort and a flash of sword light, the three-meter greatsword planted beside Leo had already cleaved through the beast's body.
Blood washed the ground.
All that remained was the beast's unwilling gaze fixed on the energy crystal in Leo's hand. Even in death, it had yearned to obtain that crystal.
The death of one beast would have little effect. Instead, the smell of blood would draw even more beasts.
How could a Body Refinement Wizard not know how to fight?
With the greatsword Gru had given him as a graduation gift, Leo used these beasts to hone his combat instincts.
He had borrowed the energy crystal from Samatchi's city lord's residence. When Leo proposed honing his martial skills while also dealing with the beast populations near Tiyama City, Samatchi naturally agreed.
Thus came the scene of Leo hunting in the wilderness!
The energy aura of an energy crystal was a scent no beast could withstand. It was what life instinctively pursued in its evolution, and the yearning from the depths of their souls would drive them mad.
Barely seconds after the first beast died at Leo's hands, countless beasts lunged at him like mad from every direction, from the sky and the ground.
An elevation of their very essence of life would make them forget all fear!
The slaughter began!
The greatsword danced as Leo slaughtered wildly, his upper body bare.
Sword qi swirled around him. Bolstered by the greatsword, each strike had around 250 points of attack power, while Leo's physical toughness let him ignore attacks below 100 points.
This made Leo more of a beast than these beasts!
He had no need to defend, letting the beasts attack him wildly without leaving the slightest mark on his skin.
Even beasts capable of breaking through Leo's defenses could only leave a tiny wound, serving no purpose beyond making him more excited and bloodthirsty.
Such minor wounds required no activation of the Healing Array on his body. His powerful flesh could heal them completely in only about half an hour.
"Heh heh heh, little fellows? Do you feel fear?"
Leo was dyed red with blood, his entire body radiating savagery. Destroying life would awaken the most evil, primal impulse in a person: to destroy everything.
With martial power in hand, he unleashed the beast of evil thoughts in his heart even more recklessly!
Great strength was the foundation of confidence!
"Roar!"
Amid the corpses strewn across the ground, Leo formed a perimeter of sword strikes with his greatsword, harvesting lives in the most brutal way, when a soul-shaking roar suddenly erupted.
Every beast attacking Leo was instantly terrified. Wailing, they fled with their tails between their legs. The suppression imposed upon their souls made them abandon the temptation of the energy crystal.
Leo shook his body sharply, shaking off all the blood and revealing his bare upper body. With a casual sweep of the greatsword in his hand, he flung off all the bloodstains on it, returning it to its pitch-black appearance.
His eyes fixed on the place where the thunderous roar had come from. Anything capable of driving away every beast with a single roar had to be a level-one beast!
A level-one beast. Leo licked his lips. He was desperate to find a level-one beast to test his skills against!
Ice Woman Alice could kill a level-one beast instantly. Leo wanted to see the gap between himself and that woman!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rows of trees toppled, and loose rocks tumbled down the mountain. Before the level-one beast even appeared before Leo, its imposing presence had already cowed its surroundings.
It had thick gray scales of horn, a massive meter-long horn raised toward the sky, and limbs as thick as ancient trees. A casual step left a footprint a foot deep.
Its shoulders stood nearly ten meters high, and a row of sharp barbs ran from its head to its tail. Its tail, over ten meters long, casually curled around several beast carcasses on the ground and stuffed them into its mouth.
Two rows of sharp fangs sheared up and down like files. Amid spraying blood, everything, bones included, was swallowed into its belly.
This was an adult Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast whose strength had reached level one. Over twenty meters long and weighing nearly twenty tonnes, a rampaging Triple-Armored Sharp-Helm Beast could smash through a mountainside. It was practically the Wizard World's bulldozer.