CHAPTER 207: EX 207. NO TIME TO WASTE TIME

Affinities were unlike the other stats. Strength, speed, vitality, those could be tempered with sweat, blood, and endless training. Affinities, however, were fixed from the moment of awakening. The tier of a trial taker’s affinity stat remained locked, unyielding for years, unless touched by rare and dangerous resources. Even then, the gamble often outweighed the reward.

Which made Leon’s case a paradox. With his EX-rank talent, he could pour attack points into his affinity as if rewriting heaven’s law. Now, his Force Affinity stood at Tier III, an advantage no one else alive could dream of. And tonight, he intended to find out what that truly meant.

He stood barefoot on the small island in the middle of the pond, the cave roof glowing faintly blue above him. The light shimmered across his bare chest and skin, his white hair loose and spilling over his shoulders. He could have dressed properly after the fight with the Great Bear. He could have tied his hair back. But instead, he let himself appear like a wandering hermit, cut off from the world.

In his right hand, his sword gleamed. Leon narrowed his eyes at the reflection on its blade, speaking into the still air.

"Tier I Force allows me to increase the strength of my attacks... and reduce the force of incoming ones. But what does Tier III do?"

That reduction, he rarely thought of it, but it had saved his life more than once. He had used it instinctively against the Great Bear’s crushing ambush. Even wounded, the outcome had been far better than it should have been. Without it, his body would have been flattened.

Leon exhaled slowly and activated the affinity. A golden glow rippled over him, flowing down his body and into his sword. The aura did not roar, nor did it blaze, it pulsed steadily, a river of force bending to his will. He tilted his head, noticing the change.

"It’s thicker," he murmured.

In the past, he had rarely coated both body and weapon at once. The burden of control was too steep. Every inch of aura amplified the force behind his movements, making precision far harder. So he used it in bursts, making sure it was explosive, brief and decisive. But this was different. At Tier III, the affinity moved like a subconscious thought. He willed, and it obeyed.

He raised his blade, expecting a shift in the air, a distortion in pressure. Yet the cave remained silent. His gaze sharpened. Then, with a fluid motion, he slashed diagonally.

The sword cut nothing and yet everything. A golden arc leapt from the blade, ripping into the cave wall as if stone was no harder than parchment. The strike tore through effortlessly, carving through the mountain itself before bursting into the night. Moments later, the cut region of the wall slid away in silence, collapsing like a slice of butter peeled from the loaf.

Leon lowered his sword. He stared at the gap in the cavern, at the sudden wound in the mountain where he had chosen to rest. moon light spilled into the open space from the night sky outside.

He did not smile. He did not grin in triumph. He only stared, the weight of realization settling over him. Then he looked at the sword in his hand, expression unreadable, before finally speaking in a voice too stunned to sound excited.

"...Well. That’s something."

****

Leon stood before the jagged wall of stone, dust still settling from where he had sealed the gaping hole with one of his skills. The cavern was quiet now, cut off from the outside world. He let his hand fall to his side, staring at the blocked passage for a long moment before muttering, "I’ve done everything I can do here."

The thought was final. He wasn’t going to spend the rest of his days hiding in a cave, no matter how secure it felt. He had things to do, more than most trial takers could even imagine. The trial demanded he uncover the source of corruption, what ever that might be and put an end to it, and somewhere out there, his squadmates were scattered across this strange land. He couldn’t forget either of those things, not for a moment. Today had only been a day to settle in, to sharpen himself against the strangeness of this world.

Still, he wasn’t blind to the truth. His eyes flickered with something deeper, the weight of his ambition pressing against his chest. "And I have to reach SSS-rank while doing all this," he said aloud, the words steady, like a vow.

He exhaled slowly, his breath echoing faintly in the sealed cavern. His gaze hardened, pupils narrowing until only a steel resolve remained. "I won’t be demotivated by just this. I’ll find my squadmates, raise my strength, and demolish this stupid trial."

The declaration didn’t just hang in the air, it ignited him. His body thrummed with energy, his spirit refusing to bow to setbacks or unknowns. Obstacles weren’t walls anymore, not to him. They were steps, and he’d climb them until there was no summit left.

A faint grin tugged at his lips as he whispered, "I’ll accumulate the remaining points for today... and tomorrow, I’ll find civilization."

The plan was simple, but it burned with clarity. Unlike his first trial, he wasn’t about to waste his days rotting inside a cave. That Leon, the one who spent twenty-eight long days striking a wall like a mindless beast, felt almost like another person entirely. He shook his head at the memory. If he had thrown himself into gathering points properly back then, with just a single day’s worth, he could have conquered that trial without dragging it out. But that was the past.

This was now.

And now, Leon’s fists clenched with purpose. He was going to hunt, to gather, to grow stronger today, and when the sun rose tomorrow, he would step into the unknown world beyond and carve his path toward the peak.