In the blink of an eye, two weeks had already passed since Victor had arrived in Veritla. During this time, Victor solely focused on getting as strong as possible in as short of a period of time as possible.
After his encounter with that Albatross monster, he was slapped with the reality of things and he knew he had to change his approach even though he already anticipated that things were bound to be different.
He focused on healing while also trying to keep his progress. Surprisingly, his shoulder fully healed in a few days and he was able to go back to training like before and even better.
His entire days consisted of training, eating, and sleeping. He didn't let himself do anything else since he knew he didn't have much time before he had to leave. So, he kept increasing the intensity of his training while also making sure to keep absorbing energy and improving his core.
He also had gone through a huge improvement in his Ripple Runic Technique. He was able to master the first 7 moves, leaving only 4 more to learn and he knew those won't take that long either.
Day after day, hour after hour, Victor was feeling the improvement. His stamina increased exponentially, and his strength, speed, and even instincts reached a whole new level. He felt that he was reborn again, truly.
But, that improvement was far from enough. He knew that he was still merely a Dark phase Colorless Core human. His power was negligible in the grand scheme of things. But, that didn't make him lose motivation and instead made him even more willing to work harder.
These two first weeks had shown him two things. The first one was that the power he could obtain by simply working hard was unfathomable. Even though he still didn't make his first breakthrough, he could already feel himself inching toward the level of strength that he had back on Earth.
The second thing he discovered was that this world was simply gigantic, to an unbelievable scale. The way he discovered that was through his multiple trips underwater to hunt fish. Swimming through the beautiful sea had revealed to him countless creatures he had never seen before.
Fish of all colors and shapes, sea creatures that looked nothing like the ones Victor had seen on Earth. Coral reefs that stretched so far, he couldn't even see the end of them. Going underwater was like entering a whole new world on its own. A world of different order and different laws.
Yet, Victor knew that the shores of this island were simply a small glimpse of what the true ocean has in it. The proof of that was Victor's inability to find any dangerous monsters where he hunted.
Even though he had dived multiple times, he wasn't attacked by anything terrifying. He didn't know if that was pure luck or not, but he also assumed that the scarier creatures were living way deeper into the ocean and not a few dozen meters away from the shore.
Not that Victor wanted to meet any of those abominations. Even when he didn't know what they looked like, he would love for that to remain the case for a long while. After all, Victor was certain he wasn't strong enough to actually fight any of them if he ended up coming across them.
***
"Hnng…" Victor felt the sun's rays hit his face. Opening his eyes, he slowly rose up and wiped his face. Then, he tilted his head, cracking his neck. After that, he stretched and finally stood up. He then tiredly strode to the mirror and took a look at himself.
Even though it had merely been two weeks, the changes his body went through were surprising. For instance, Victor gained a lot of weight during that period of time.
His body was now more toned and athletic. His height had also increased a little. All of that was the result of his intense training and absorbing huge amounts of Runic Energy.
After inspecting his body, he nodded with a satisfied tone before he turned around and left the house heading to the beach. On the way, he grabbed a few fruits to eat.
"Today is my last day here." He muttered as he chewed on the fruit standing near the shore. His expression was calm, but deep down, he was feeling a little weird. After spending such a long time on this island, he would be lying if he said that he didn't grow to like it.
The peace of living alone was simply too good. He had never thought being detached from his past life would have such a profound effect on him.
He felt the change within him on a mental level and he cannot describe it. However, Victor felt like he was a new man.
But, that all will come to an end today. He had decided that two weeks was the period of time he would spend on this island. He didn't know how long the trip to the next island would take and he didn't want to be late for whatever surprise the God was holding for him.
So, two weeks was the safest middle choice to take. As much as Victor wanted to spend more time here, the rest of the world was calling for him and it was simply more enticing than staying there.
After finishing the fruit, he finally turned around. "Well, time to gather whatever I have on this island. I need to leave before noon."
Even though he came there with no belongings whatsoever, he had a few things he could make use of that he wanted to bring with him.
With that, Victor immediately started preparing for the trip. He first collected a good amount of fruit and put it in an old bag before throwing it on the boat. Then, he took the pot, the fishing rod, and the hunting tools he carved out of wood and put them on the boat too. He then slowly dragged the monster's body that he dissected and stored in salt to eat later.
It surprisingly turned out to be quite delicious and not as poisonous as he expected. It was also a great source of protein for his body.
Then, when he was certain that he had collected everything, he checked the boat's engine to see if it was in a good state or not. Even though he wasn't a mechanic, he had some general knowledge about boat engines so he was confident he would be able to identify any problems if there were any.
Luckily, it seemed the engine wasn't damaged after sitting there for god knows how long.
'I'm surprised this boat is in the good state it is in now. With how old that house is, I expected the boat to be completely rusted out and destroyed. Weird…' Rubbing his chin he looked at the entire boat with a frown.
He felt that something was off about this particular detail yet he couldn't wrap his head around what it was exactly. Perhaps he was simply being paranoid for no reason, or that God was hiding something from him and Victor certainly leaned toward the latter possibility.
"Oh well, I can't really stand here and think. Whatever it is, I will discover it sooner or later." Shrugging it off with a shake of his head Victor turned around and gave the island one last look.
A myriad of emotions flashed across his eyes as he exhaled a small sigh.
"Time to say goodbye then…" He muttered as he finally turned around and pushed the boat to the water. Then, he jumped on it and turned the engine on. The machine roared loudly as it activated.
Then, Victor skilfully pushed the knob and the boat immediately started moving through the water at a moderate speed, slowly going faster and faster with each passing second. Eventually, the boat found itself hundreds of meters away from the island.
Victor looked behind him, admiring the distant silhouette of the island. A few seconds passed before he turned around again. "I will make sure to come back here, one day." He made a promise to himself, that whenever he would get the opportunity again, he would definitely get back here.
By that time, however, he didn't know what kind of person he would become and what kind of things he would witness. All he could wish for was that he would finally find the thing he was looking for so much… Hope.
[Volume 1]
A//N: Support the book with PS, boys!