Yulia needed a moment to think.

When she woke up this morning, she found the adults bringing Mr. Chu-Pei, who seemed asleep, to their room.

She followed them, and saw that they all had bags under their eyes, as if they hadn't slept at all last night. Mr. Chu also had his legs full of bandages and wood planks keeping them straight, which Yulia found weird.

When she asked them what had happened, they didn't want to tell her, but then Mr. Yu-Sho, the youngest, broke down and told her.

He told her everything.

From when they were attacked, to when they arrived and Al started ordering them around, and when he expertly closed all the wounds in Mr. Chu's legs, without even flinching at the torrents of blood that came out when he slid each spike out.

And Yulia had simply slept through all of it.

Al, who she knew was much younger than herself -although something was definitely different with him- had worked until collapse to save a life, while she dreamed without a care in the world.

She needed to train harder

The next day, Al set up a meeting with the four operating adults.

His body still ached all over, and his palms were raw from the fire gem, but this couldn't wait.

Once they all arrived, he told them about his encounters with the Badger-pine and the Supra bunny. He explained to them how to defeat them, and how to run away. Of course, that came with endless questions from the other party, so he decided to tell them some half truths about his condition.

He said that when he was three months old he suddenly got many memories from his past life, which is effectively the same as what happened, but it sounds a lot less weird than a 26 year old being in a toddler body. 'That even weirds me out'

He didn't mention the System or Earth, but he did say he was a proficient fighter in his past life, and he knew some basic medicine to treat his wounds.

In the end, they decided not to tell any other kids about it, and moved on with their life. Al felt as if a crushing weight had been lifted off his undeveloped shoulders.

Al also got permission to visit the surrounding woods, but not to fight the Rank 2 beasts alone. 'Well, it was to be expected.' Plus, it wasn't like he was going to listen to them anyways.

He collected the big spine from the badger-pine that fell into the rabbit hole. It was already dead, so he didn't get any experience, but oh well.

He gave the spike to Khan-Wan to try something out, and as he suspected, she barely noticed any difference in her weight. The spike seemed to increase in effect exponentially the less mass the weirder had, so it wouldn't be a permanent Dexterity boost. Well, it would still serve him well for a few years.

Al also felt like the ambient mana in the forest was slowly becoming higher and higher every passing day, which could potentially be the reason that some bunnies were growing to become Rank 2, and some of the squirrel-like creatures that prowled on the trees were somehow evolving into Badger-pines.

If Darwin saw this, he would be trying to claw his eyeballs out.

Al had seen the effects of mana on beasts first-hand, yet even he was surprised they could evolve again by simply having more mana around. 'Or were they already born Rank 1?' That was actually really plausible, since he hadn't seen any 'Rank 0' or 'Normal' version of the squirrels nor the rabbits. Maybe there weren't even normal animals in this world.

Al didn't encounter any strong beasts for the next month, but all the Rank 1 ones he killed pushed him close to Level 3. He hadn't spent the unassigned point yet, and he probably wouldn't for a long time.

During this time, he had been cultivating diligently, and he felt he was extremely close to finally breaking through. He also got his strength up to F- Grade, and he didn't seemed to get any bulkier, just a lot leaner from the constant exercise. He would tread that path with caution.

And so, Al visited the forest that night too. At this point he ignored the Rank 1 rabbits and squirrels unless they actively got in his way (which wasn't a rare occurrence) there was also some kind of mini-boar, that was pretty ferocious despite it's small size, smaller that a normal pig on Earth.

Then, in front of Al, appeared a boar the size of a minivan, charging straight at him. 'Man, why did I have to go and jinx it?' Al gracefully dodged to the side, fully utilising his improved [Body Enhancement]. But then, the ground below him collapsed, something only a Supra-bunny could do, and he fell into the 20+ meter deep pit. It would be instant death for him if he fell, even while enhancing his legs, so he desperately struck his Porcuspine at the hard, compressed dirt wall. He managed to pierce it, but it only managed to slow him down so much until it passed the limits of its elasticity and snapped.

Al willed all the mana he could into his legs to make them tougher and prepare for the shock, but they still broke with a loud 'crack' when he hit the ground. As a wave of nigh-unbearable pain washed trough his body, he remembered Chu-Pei's messed up legs, and thought 'karma's a bitch'.

Then a shadow covered the hole. The FUCKING boar-bear 'Sorry, I can't help it' was barrelling down the pit to get to Al. The entirety of the hole was covered by its body, and Al momentarily though about lining himself with the beast's mouth and hoping it killed itself by the fall. But then the only method of escape would be... yeah, Al preferred death over that. He ducked and covered his head as the beast's tusks impaled the ground, holding the rest of its body around 25cm in the air.

Al didn't know if he should curse his bad luck or thank his fortune, but he unstrapped the extra Spine he had made a habit of carrying in case of emergency, and, while trying not to breath the putrid air coming from the beast's mouth, struck it into the beast's palate, trying to reach for its brain from the inside. It died quicker than he expected, and he even found a small gap inbetween the creature and the earthen wall leading to the surface.

He wriggled himself up, legs barely functional at all, and found a groggy rabbit, probably from mana exhaustion, mulling about. 'The sneaky bastard.' He crawled towards it, using the spine as a crutch, and by the time it noticed him he had already stabbed it in the side and used the spine as a handhold to climb to its back.

He grabbed the beast's horn and used it as a steering wheel as it ran towards the direction of the orphanage. While his vision started to get blurry, he noticed two things. Firstly the level-up message, which he honestly couldn't care less about, and secondly, his lower legs were messed up. They were bleeding profusely, pieces of bone and torn muscle jutting out from the surface. Al wanted to hurl his lunch, but he didn't even have energy for that.

Then he saw the wood wall, and crashed into it. As he flew through the air, the broken off rabbit horn in his hand, he spotted Yuly looking at him with a memorable look on her face.

He threw her the horn, muttering "use this." He didn't know for what though, and he blacked out when he hit the ground.