Chapter 20 - Chapter 19

Although that forest was quite dense, Leon decided to make his water reservoir near his new camp. He would find a way to make the water from several spots run toward his tank, so it was fine. Although it was a pain to start from scratch, it was necessary.

While Leon was digging the hole and thinking of making a bathtub made of earth, suddenly, the entire island started to shake.

"Woah, Woah… what the hell is going on now?"

It was an earthquake; it was so intense that Leon even fell on the ground. Several coconuts and bananas also fell, but Leon was more worried about what would come next. An earthquake near the ocean was never a good sign…

"Please don't come, please don't come…"

That island was pretty close to the epicenter of the earthquake, so pretty soon it came… a tsunami.

"Jesus Christ… I'm screwed."

Coming from the west, Leon felt intense winds before he could see even the wave. He looked around, trying to find a sturdy tree that could endure the impact. Unfortunately, not a single tree looked that sturdy. They seemed pretty young as if it wasn't the first time a tsunami had hit that island. Regardless, Leon hugged with all his strength the largest tree he found. He had to endure the strength of the ocean, and he couldn't let the water push himself, or he would die.

As if those trees were sticks, several of them got knocked down by the wave. Leon didn't waste time thinking that those were literally the trees that could only produce the fruits and the water he could eat and drink. When the wave hit him, he only thought about his family. The wave tried to push him, but he endured using Strong Arms. Several trees hit him while being pushed by the wave, bones started to break at an alarming rate, but Leon endured it all while seeing the image of his family engraved in his mind. They were all smiling, but then the image in his head started to burn, the more pain he felt, the more the image burned. Leon didn't want to think about it; he avoided thinking of that possibility… but it was clear that monsters had invaded the world and were destroying his hometown, his homeland. That much was clear because he didn't see a single airplane or ship in three weeks, even though he was supposed to be near their routes.

Eventually, the trees stopped hitting him and breaking his bones, but the ocean was still trying to push him. Much to his surprise, several trees endured the wave, and after five minutes, it finally stopped. Almost every single bone in his lower body had been broken, despite having the chance to sit down and breath, Leon didn't do it, because that would only cause him pain. He decided to wait in that same position for his body to heal, but then… the wind came again.

"Oh, shit…"

It was a bad joke; it had to be… to think that a second wave would come. Leon was exhausted since he used his stamina as much as possible, and now he had to endure the second wave with low health and low stamina. In the end, Leon just clenched his teeth.

Congratulations! The skill Pain Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

Congratulations! The skill Pain Resistance has leveled up.

You obtained 01 status points.

It has been quite a while since the time Leon had leveled up that skill, but he leveled up twice in the next few minutes while the ocean was treating his broken bones pretty badly. Since Leon didn't have time to fix the positions of his bones, when his body healed, it only recovered a few wounds. The broken bones just stayed like that. As if that wasn't enough… Leon started to feel hungry. It was the price to heal his body faster, calories…

When the second wave was over, Leon clenched his teeth again and sat down, embracing the pain. He had to fix the positions of his bones as soon as possible, that would be painful, but it couldn't be helped… that day was one of those bad days everyone has to face now and then…

When Leon was about to start fixing his legs, he heard the wind, and his heart sunk. That was too much… what was the point of all that? Why struggle so much? He was doomed, no one would rescue him, and the chances of him escaping that island were stupidly low… he would have an easier time growing wings. Leon sighed… he never considered himself a mentally weak person, but he felt quite disappointed with himself. After just three weeks alone, he was already about to give up.

"I'm so pathetic…"

Always running away and always choosing the less painful path… always trying to do things to feel good about himself. Pathetic flaws… but thanks to those pathetic flaws that Leon found the strength to hug the tree again. He didn't want to die in the stomach of a shark; at the very least, he wanted to die out of the ocean. If he had to choose where he wanted to die, he wanted to die in prison, not in the fence. With those thoughts in mind, Leon survived the third wave and stayed on the island.

Several hours had passed since the tsunami; it was night, and Leon was watching the starry sky in the same position he felt after the tsunami ended. The bones of his lower body were still broken, but he didn't feel like fixing them anytime soon. He just felt like staring at the starry sky that he could see now clearly, even in the middle of the forest… all thanks to the fact that the tsunamis destroyed eighty percent of that island vegetation.