Chapter 12: A Leap in Strength
The moonlit tiger naturally couldn't speak, only letting out a low growl.
Arthur searched for the location of the Wild Wolf he had sent out on patrol; it was still under command, its Star Mark activated, and Arthur could vaguely sense the direction where the Wild Wolf was.
With a thought, Arthur switched to a first-person perspective to control the Wild Wolf, becoming "Wolf Arthur." In the dark forest, a pair of ghostly green wolf eyes lit up, the nose twitched, and it quietly slipped into the shadows to find the figure that seemed to be spying on his true body.
On Arthur's side, ever since night fell, Lumin's body was covered in stripes that glowed with a jade-like light, swaying in the firelight with a kind of tragic beauty... Arthur was unconsciously entranced, suddenly realizing something. By reversing the use of Gyo on his eyes, or rather using Zetsu on them, he focused on the glowing stripes on Lumin's body.
The beautiful stripes, glowing with a jade-like green light, slowly began to rotate, like a kaleidoscope corridor...
Before his attention could scatter and his mind become lost, Arthur decisively lifted the Zetsu from his eyes, adding a layer of aura as a barrier, and the rotating jade-green glowing stripes returned to normal.
Lumin growled twice, as if asking, "Are you okay?"
Arthur exhaled, "No wonder your stripes are so eye-catching at night; they have a visual hallucination effect... It seems this is not a disadvantage that exposes you, but rather an advantage for you moonlit tigers to lure prey in the dark."
Lumin looked at him innocently.
As for "Wolf Arthur," it circled around the dim forest again and again, finding nothing, no sign of a pale child. Perhaps it was just his imagination.
Arthur called the Wild Wolf back, letting it finish off the leftover rabbit bones.
...
The next day was business as usual.
Arthur continued to send the Wild Wolf out on patrol, instructing it to notify him if it caught any birds in the traps.
Lumin also went hunting in the forest.
Arthur continued his Nen Ability training.
This kind of superpower was still quite novel and fun for Arthur. Even without the Star Mark on his neck forcing him to train, Arthur was genuinely interested in exploring Nen Ability.
Ten, Zetsu, Ren, Hatsu...
Gyo, Ryu, Shu, Ko...
In terms of Manipulation Type, although he felt his proficiency was maxed out, Arthur didn't completely set it aside, still dedicating some time to practice.
For Emission Type, it was basic training in releasing aura, along with his current Emission Type special move, the "Finger Flick Technique," practicing both. When he could release aura bullets without relying on specific gestures and actions, the power of the "Finger Flick Technique" would undoubtedly increase.
Releasing the maximum aura and maintaining Ken, silently counting in his heart... He exhausted himself repeatedly, waiting for the Star Mark on his neck to restore his strength, then started again...
To increase the total amount of Nen Aura, there was no shortcut other than gritting his teeth, sweating, and repeatedly draining and refilling himself.
With the Star Mark's recovery assistance, he was already far ahead of ordinary Nen Ability users. Not everyone had the exceptional training conditions of Biscuit Krueger, so what was there to be dissatisfied with? Precisely because of this, he should seize every moment to train and increase his Nen Aura...
In this cycle of exhausting and recovering himself, Arthur nearly numbed his consciousness.
He suddenly understood why Biscuit Krueger developed the Nen Ability "Magic Beautician Cookie." As a woman, how much sweat and effort did Biscuit Krueger have to put in to train such astonishing strength and a flawless body? Compared to her younger days, with the recovery ability of "Cookie," her training was probably even more intense than his current madness.
Although comparing himself to such a master might seem like self-flattery, Arthur indeed drew motivation from it, giving himself a hearty dose of encouragement, and unknowingly, his Ken duration grew longer...
On the third day in this world, the second day of formal training, it was still fulfilling.
The long night passed, with a pile of gnawed bones by the fire, the Wild Wolf gnawing away. Arthur, too tired to lift a finger, lay sprawled on the moonlit tiger, snoring away.
...
"Nine hundred ninety-seven... nine hundred ninety-eight... nine hundred ninety-nine..."
On the third day of training, the fourth day in this world, it was already past noon, and the intensity of Arthur's Ken seemed unchanged from three days ago.
But this was after he had maintained Ken for over ten minutes.
"One thousand!"
Arthur gritted his teeth, counting the last number, finally unable to hold on, his aura dissipating completely, collapsing to the ground, but his sweat-covered face bore a smile.
"One thousand seconds!"
He sprawled on the ground, very satisfied, "Back in the day, with talent like Gon and Killua Zoldyck, under Biscuit's nanny-like training, it took them 30 days to increase from 3,000 aura to 20,000. Today, I, Arthur, alone, in 3 days, increased my total aura from 100 to 1,000... 1,000! A full tenfold increase! It seems my aptitude isn't bad either!"
Reflecting on the devilish, all-encompassing training of the past three days, Arthur felt the hardships were worth it.
Not only did his total aura increase tenfold, but he also became familiar with various basic Nen Ability training. Although he didn't dare claim mastery, he was at least familiar with all of them. After all, knowing and not knowing these Nen Ability techniques was a fundamental difference. In this light, compared to three days ago, his overall strength had increased more than tenfold.
If he were to return to the night four days ago, back on that small boat, facing the troublemaker with a gun, Arthur wouldn't need Lumin or the Wild Wolf's assistance. With the solid foundation he had now, he wouldn't lose. If he found an opportunity to use the "Finger Flick Technique," he could even win the fight from fifty paces away.
"I can't get too cocky; I still lack combat experience..."
Thinking this, feeling his body recovering with the Star Mark's help, Arthur sprang up with ease.
He approached a tree that required three or four adults to encircle, enveloping his entire body in a thick layer of aura, and punched out with a fist wrapped in white light. "Crack," the tree was punched with a large hole, breaking halfway.
Arthur flicked his finger, condensing aura on it, and flicked it out.
Boom!
The tree trunk, already half-broken by the punch, had its upper half shot off by a "bullet," spinning in the air before crashing into another tree, leaving a smoking crater at the impact point, cracks spreading outward.
"Not bad."
Arthur evaluated the scene, but quickly reminded himself, "Biscuit Krueger considers a total aura of at least 1,800 necessary to roam the world. I only have 1,000, so I must be cautious when traveling..."
The Wild Wolf beside him was already trembling with fear. Even without the Star Mark's control, it would likely submit to this human immediately... and he was just a human child!
Lumin had similar thoughts, but it was very close to this human, feeling a stark contrast to the Wild Wolf's fear.
Arthur patted the approaching tiger head and scolded the Wild Wolf, "Useless thing, I told you to catch a bird, and after three days, you haven't even brought back a feather! Lumin is about to hunt all the wildlife around here clean. If we go hungry, we'll skin you and roast you!"
The Wild Wolf trembled, pressing its body to the ground, whimpering continuously.
After waiting in fear for a while with no movement, it heard the human child's scolding, "What are you waiting for? Hurry up and follow."
The Wild Wolf looked up to see Arthur already preparing to leave with the moonlit tiger; feeling relieved, it scrambled to catch up.
...
Arthur hadn't given up on catching birds. In this unfamiliar place, catching a bird to control and observe the terrain from above was the most convenient.
However, by the second day, he realized that relying on those bird traps was probably futile. After all, it was his first time making such things, and the results were understandably poor.
Now that his "divine skill" had made some progress, he naturally had other methods.
Arthur focused aura in his eyes, enhancing his vision.
Upon spotting a few crow-sized birds chirping on the treetops, he signaled Lumin and the Wild Wolf to retreat, then closed all his aura nodes, concealing his aura completely, entering a state of Zetsu. Arthur was like a common stone, and even when he walked under the tree with the birds, they didn't sense any danger.
Be gentle...
Arthur flicked a tiny aura bullet the size of a grain of rice, accurately hitting one of the gray birds.
The gray bird, chirping away, suddenly blacked out and fell from the branch.
The other birds, whether white, green, or also gray, were startled and spread their wings, but soon they too felt something hit their heads, rolling their eyes and sticking out their tongues as they fell from the treetops...
"Done." Arthur clapped his hands under the tree.
He cut a strand of his hair, wrapped it with aura, bent it into a very small pentagram shape, and passed it over the beaks of the five unconscious birds on the ground, leaving five small rose-gold Star Marks.
"Awaken." Arthur uttered a word.
The five small Star Marks activated in response, merging with the birds' life energy. Instantly, all five birds opened their eyes.
"Fly." Arthur commanded again.
Flap, flap...
The birds chirped for a moment, then obediently took to the sky in an orderly manner.
Arthur looked up, his mind shifting the control mode from ③ to ①. Instantly, it was as if he had five extra external brains, five sub-consciousnesses, five sub-views, soaring with the wind, spreading their wings in the vast forest canopy tens of meters above.
"So this is what flying feels like?" Walking on the forest floor, Arthur fully experienced the novelty.
However, he didn't forget his main task, immediately controlling the five birds to spread out in the air, continuing to ascend, and observing the area from five different directions, trying to determine where he was, where to go to leave the forest quickly, and whether there were any human towns.
"It's an island?"
Arthur flipped onto the tiger's back, calling the accompanying Wild Wolf, and dashed through the forest in the chosen direction.
"Or a peninsula..."
With the broad view provided by the five birds flying a hundred meters high, Arthur already knew his location. It was a peninsula extending northward into the ocean from a larger landmass, almost entirely covered by lush forests, with towns along the eastern and western coasts.
Arthur initially woke up at the northernmost part of this peninsula, beyond which lay the endless sea. The small boat was naturally nearby. The entire northern coastline was barren, without even a lighthouse, just a bare shoreline.
Arthur had previously ventured deep into the peninsula's interior to bury the remains of the hunter and the woman who had died, wandering aimlessly while training, and was now closer to the eastern coastal town.
He wasn't sure if he was mistaken, but the far left of the eastern coastal town seemed to be a... Arthur controlled the five birds to collectively turn and look in that direction, confirming that it was indeed a large amusement park. However, estimating the distance was tricky, and he had a long way to go.
But having a destination in mind, Arthur felt more at ease, even enjoying the scenery along the way, as it wasn't him expending energy to run.
"Stop, Tiger Bro, I said stop."
Arthur gently patted the tiger's back.
He jumped down, walking to the right. Here, the forest gradually thinned, and ahead was a wire fence... Just then, Arthur's eyes caught something. Through one of the birds hovering overhead, he seemed to see a few figures sneaking around on the other side of the fence, looking suspiciously like no-good individuals...
Arthur walked along the fence for a dozen meters, suddenly seeing a sign hanging on it.
Having mastered the language of the Hunter World, Arthur naturally recognized the illustrated content, and because of this, he fell silent.
"Endangered Animal Reserve, Moonlit Tiger Habitat, No Entry..."
No wonder he hadn't seen a soul for days; he had been wandering outside the reserve...
Should he consider himself lucky? Not being arrested for poaching...
Lumin growled twice, seemingly recognizing the fence.
Arthur thought for a moment, suddenly understanding, and turned to ask, "Were you injured by poachers, escaped from the reserve, and happened to pass by me, then healed because of me? Is that it?"
Lumin tilted its head at him, then came over to nuzzle Arthur.
"How can we let this slide? A few lousy poachers bullying my Tiger Bro, I won't stand for it!" Arthur was eager to test his current skills, flipping onto the tiger's back. "Let's go, let me, the fake hunter, meet them."