Chapter 29: Tier 2

Days passed quicker than Leon expected as his routine remained the same. During the day, he would practice his techniques and attend Amber’s classes, and at night, he would enter the dungeon to search for the Energy Orbs. Unfortunately, his luck wasn’t that good in the dungeon, and he encountered the Mosspounder every single time. The only good thing about his adventures was that he could now kill Crimson Rabbits more quickly and had even begun to collect the Energy Orbs efficiently. Sadly, the requirement to level up increased after every level, so even though he was now hunting more of the Crimson Rabbits, he still found it hard to level up quickly. In just a few days of grinding, he only managed to reach the peak of Level 09. But it was harder to level up since he was advancing a Tier. At higher Tiers, the advancement required certain conditions to be fulfilled. But since it was just the First Tier, he only needed more Essence than ever before. This was why even when the day of entering the dungeon came, he was still at Level 09, slightly away from advancement. That was the reason he worked extra hard the previous night and hunted many Crimson Rabbits, but the end result was similar to other days. The Mosspounder found him and killed him... again. In the morning, he woke up early to absorb all the Energy Orbs he had gathered and did so with a clear mind. Minutes passed as his Soul Core was filled with more and more Essence, becoming increasingly full. At one point, it was completely filled, yet the Essence was still pouring into it. This was the breakthrough point from Tier 1 to Tier 2, and Leon had already prepared himself for it. The Soul Core began to crack under the immense pressure, and fragments of it scattered in his sea of consciousness. Before they could dissolve or fade, the overflowing Essence and Leon’s Willpower pulled all of them back together as if gravity was attracting them. Slowly but surely, the Soul Core began to take shape again—this time much larger than before. It was sturdier, more refined, and could now store even more Essence. Because of its rebirth, there were a few more changes, but the fact that an entirely new Soul Core was formed signified his advancement to Tier 2, or Level 11. With that, a burst of Essence exploded outward from the Soul Core and began to circulate through the metaphysical pathways in his body that were meant to carry the Essence. The advancement seemed to have triggered something in the atmosphere as Essence poured inside him, making his physical body more powerful. Every cell, every muscle, every tissue—everything received nourishment from the atmosphere. It was as if he had evolved beyond the limits of mundane humans, which wasn’t wrong to say since he could now best many humans on his own. The gap between each level was big, but the difference between Tiers was even more enormous. This was the sole reason that even after becoming so strong, Leon still got killed by the Mosspounder. He slowly opened his eyes and was about to inhale the fresh air when an awful stench assaulted his nostrils. His stomach retched, and he hurriedly ran toward the bathroom. There, Leon took a long bath to clean himself of the impurities his body had leaked out during the nourishment from atmospheric Essence. After coming out in just a bath towel, he admired his appearance in the mirror and smiled, "Heh, I really need to thank Mum for giving me such beautiful genes." He easily stood tall at around 183 cm with medium-length jet black hair that he styled fashionably. His emerald green eyes seemed to stand out against his dark hair and handsome face. They were like deep pools of jade that sucked you in, never to be seen again. His figure was lean with dense, rolling muscles that got easily covered up once he wore clothes, but they still remained there, providing him strength. His gaze traveled down toward his little buddy, and he smirked, "Heh, I might get arrogant just because of you, buddy." Even though Leon had undergone a transformation, he wasn’t much different from before because he was already in pretty good shape. After staring at himself one more time, Leon quickly did a few exercises to roughly test his new strength and also get used to it. Then, he wore a black battle suit and sheathed his pair of obsidian short swords on his back. He also packed a few other items, which his battle suit easily allowed since it was made for these situations. Before leaving, he took out a box from the drawers and opened it. A small glass bottle filled with a strange purple liquid sat inside. "This better work, otherwise it’ll be tough to come out unscathed," Leon muttered before he pocketed the bottle in his inner pockets. It looked like glass, but it was made of a different material from the Primordial Expanse, so he knew it wouldn’t break easily. Once everything was done, he called his mother and talked to her for a few minutes, which calmed him and also relaxed his mother, who was worrying way too much because of his decision to become a fighter-type Awakened. Only after he had convinced her did he leave his dorms. He once again sneaked away through corners to avoid meeting people and approached the location where everyone was supposed to gather before entering the Flame Knight Dungeon. As he was passing through the backside of the library, he was reminded of Hinata. He wondered if he had managed to make some impression on her so that she worked hard to improve herself. Leon was in a daze, but he still sensed the upcoming danger approaching him and quickly ducked down without giving it a second thought. After ’fighting’ with the Mosspounder for so long, he had developed a terrifying intuition. It didn’t help him much against that damned monster, but he certainly managed to evade the first sneak attack this time. ’What the hell? Who would dare attack me in the Academy? Wait! I’m sneaking around, so maybe that’s why they chose this timing.’