Lumos rumbled. Made a sound that wasn't quite agreement, wasn't quite concern.
Not helpful, Lumos.
Liam reached for his connection to Fenrir. The wolf was still under orders—patrolling, obeying, existing in that command-state limbo where the Star Mark stayed active.
Which meant Liam could sense him. Vague direction. Distance. Like a compass needle pointing at Fenrir
Liam switched to first-person control.
His consciousness slammed into wolf-body. Green eyes ignited in the darkness. Wolf-nose twitched. Scents flooded in—earth, decay, small prey, and—
Nothing. No pale child. No ghost. No mysterious entity.
Fenrir prowled through shadows. Found exactly zero supernatural threats. Just trees and darkness and the general ambiance of "creepy forest at night."
Maybe I imagined it. Overtraining hallucinations. That's a thing, right?
Liam pulled back to his human body. Stared at Lumos.
The tiger's markings glowed sapphire-bright now that night had fallen. Beautiful. Hypnotic. The patterns pulsed and shifted like living things.
Wait.
Liam used Zetsu on his eyes. Not coating them in aura—removing aura. The opposite of Gyo. Leaving them defensively naked.
The markings on Lumos's fur began to rotate. Spiraling. Kaleidoscope corridors of blue light that pulled at his attention, dragged his focus deeper—
Oh that's a trap.
Liam slammed Gyo back on. Wrapped his eyes in protective aura. The patterns returned to normal. Still pretty. No longer actively trying to eat his brain.
Lumos rumbled. You okay?
"Your markings are a weapon." Liam laughed. "Not just camouflage-breaking stupidity. You've got built-in visual hypnosis. Animals at night see the glow, get mesmerized, and then you eat their face."
That's actually brilliant. Evolution gave you a superpower.
The tiger blinked innocently. I'm just pretty.
Sure you are.
Fenrir returned from his fruitless search. Liam let him finish the rabbit carcass. Gave him orders for tomorrow. Same patrol. Same pointless bird-trap duty.
Tomorrow I'll figure out a better system. Tonight: sleep.
Day Two. Same as Day One but with more suffering.
Fenrir: bird patrol.
Lumos: hunting.
Liam: training montage with self-inflicted pain.
Ten. Zetsu. Ren. Hatsu.
Gyo. Ryu. Shu. Ken.
The techniques piled up. Basic skills became muscle memory. His Manipulation abilities—already his strong suit—reached what felt like mastery. But he didn't stop. Kept drilling. Kept refining.
Emission practice: releasing aura bullets without the finger-gun gesture. Harder. Less power. More versatile. Progress measured in millimeters.
Ken maintenance: hold maximum output until collapse. Count the seconds. Rest. Repeat. No shortcuts. Just sweat and stubbornness and the Star Mark healing him back to functional every ten minutes.
This is what powerleveling feels like. This is the grind.
Bisky did this. Probably worse. She trained until she developed a Piano Massage just to recover faster and train MORE.
That's dedication bordering on psychosis.
I respect it.
Liam poured mental chicken soup into his own brain. Motivated himself through comparisons to fictional characters. It worked. He stayed "hard" longer each session. Seconds turned to minutes.
His body went numb to the routine. Train. Collapse. Heal. Repeat.
Day Three. Night.
Clean-picked bones lay by the fire. Fenrir gnawed on leftovers. Liam sprawled across Lumos like the tiger was a heated mattress, already asleep before his head fully settled.
Exhausted. Satisfied. Getting stronger.
Day Four. Past noon.
"Nine hundred ninety-seven... ninety-eight... ninety-nine..."
Liam's Ken output flickered. His aura shell collapsed. He dropped to his knees. Sweat poured from every inch of skin.
But he was smiling.
"One thousand seconds!"
He rolled onto his back. Stared at sky through trees. Laughed.
One thousand aura. From one hundred. In three days.
He did the math in his head. Gon and Killua—with Bisky's nanny-tier training regimen—went from 3,000 to 20,000 in thirty days. Roughly 7x multiplier.
Liam had just done 10x in three days. Solo. No master. Just stubbornness and self-manipulation.
I might actually be good at this.
Or I'm working ten times harder because I'm terrified of dying.
Probably both.
Three days ago, he'd struggled with basic techniques. Could barely maintain Ten. Would've lost to any competent Nen user.
Now?
Liam stood. Approached a tree trunk as thick as four grown men. Wrapped his body in Ken—maximum offensive output coating. Threw a punch.
CRACK.
The tree trunk exploded. Half the width shattered. Wood fibers tore. The tree tilted, creaking.
Liam stepped back. Charged a finger-bullet. One second. Snap.
The projectile hit the damaged trunk dead-center. The remaining wood gave up. The tree flipped through the air. Crashed into another tree. A smoking crater marked the impact point.
"Not bad." Liam studied his work. "Not bad at all."
Then again, Bisky's advice about the minimum threshold to not die is 1,800 aura. I'm at 1,000. Still below "won't die immediately" level.
Gotta stay humble. Or paranoid. Same thing in this world.
Fenrir cowered nearby. Trembling. Even without the Star Mark's active control, the wolf looked ready to pledge eternal loyalty to this terrifying human cub.
Lumos, by contrast, seemed proud. Impressed. He padded over and nuzzled Liam's shoulder.
"Thanks, Lumos." Liam scratched behind the tiger's ears. Then turned to Fenrir. "And YOU. Three days. THREE DAYS and you haven't caught a SINGLE bird! Lumos's hunted everything nearby. If we get hungry, I'm roasting YOU next!"
The wolf flattened to the ground. Whimpering. Terrified.
Liam let him stew for a moment. Then: "What are you waiting for? Move out. We're leaving."
Fenrir looked up. Saw Liam already mounting Lumos. Scrambled after them like he'd been pardoned from death row.
Bird-catching by trap: failed experiment. Time for Plan B.
Liam had grown stronger. Which meant he had options now.
He activated Gyo. His enhanced vision picked out birds in distant trees. Crow-sized. Gray and white plumage. No idea what species.
Perfect.
He signaled Lumos and Fenrir to hang back. Then used Zetsu.
Every pore sealed. His aura signature vanished. He became a rock. A tree. Background scenery.
The birds didn't react as he approached. Didn't notice the predator walking beneath their perch.
Stealth is OP. Zetsu is basically invisibility.
Liam formed a rice-grain-sized aura bullet. Flicked it gently.
Thwip.
One bird went dark. Tumbled from the branch.
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. Thwip.
Four more birds dropped like stones.
"Done." Liam clapped dust from his hands.
He plucked a hair. Wrapped it in aura. Bent it into five tiny pentagrams. Pressed each one against the hard beaks of the unconscious birds—makeshift stamps leaving rose-gold marks.
"Wake up."
Five Star Marks activated. Fused with avian life energy. Five pairs of eyes snapped open.
"Fly."
The birds chirped. Obeyed. Rose into the sky in formation.
Liam looked up. Switched to first-person control for all five simultaneously.
His consciousness split.
Five bodies. Five perspectives. Five sets of wings catching wind currents. He was a flock. A hive mind. Flying dozens of meters above the forest canopy.
This is INCREDIBLE.
This is also deeply weird and I'm definitely going to crash into a tree if I don't focus.
He forced his human body to keep walking. Let his bird-bodies spread out. Gain altitude. Survey the landscape.
Where the hell am I?
The answer came quickly.
Island. No—peninsula.
He was on a finger of land extending north into ocean. Forest covered most of it. But along the east and west coasts—town clusters. Buildings. Roads. Civilization.
Liam had washed up on the peninsula's northern tip. The barren coast where the cruise ship had beached. Then he'd wandered inland while training, getting progressively more lost.
Now he was near the east coast. And in the distance, through five sets of bird-eyes—
Is that an amusement park?
He redirected all five birds. Confirmed: large playground structures. Ferris wheel silhouette. Definitely human habitation.
Finally. A destination.
"Head east!" Liam called to Lumos. "Full speed! We've got a target!"
The tiger launched into a ground-eating lope. Fenrir followed. Liam enjoyed the scenery—not his stamina being spent.
Then Lumos slowed. Stopped.
"What—"
"Keep going, Lumos. I said keep—" Liam patted the tiger's flank.
Lumos didn't budge. Stared at something to the right.
Liam dismounted. Walked toward where the forest thinned.
Chain-link fence. Tall. Industrial. And a sign hanging on the wire.
Liam read it with his newfound literacy.
ENDANGERED SPECIES SANCTUARY
MISERY MOON TIGER HABITAT
NO ENTRY
He stared at the sign. At the fence. At the forest behind him.
I've been wandering around a wildlife preserve for three days.
That's why there are no people. That's why everything's isolated.
I've been accidentally trespassing in tiger territory.
Lumos rumbled. Recognition in the sound.
Liam turned. "You were here. In the reserve. Then poachers shot you. You escaped. Found me. Got healed."
That's why you're so attached. I saved your life and you imprinted like a baby duck with murder capabilities.
The tiger nuzzled his head against Liam's chest. Confirmation.
"Well." Liam scratched the tiger's ear. "Guess that makes us even."
Movement through the fence. His bird's-eye view caught it—figures moving through trees. Sneaky. Furtive. Armed.
Poachers.
Liam's expression hardened. "So. A few garbage-tier poachers hurt my buddy. And they're STILL here. Still operating."
He vaulted onto Lumos's back. Grinned with teeth showing.
"Can't let that slide. I need combat practice anyway. Let's go introduce ourselves."