Grasp Your Strength Firmly

On day three of the survival mission, Alec woke up.

Everything in his body was aching. If you thought puberty was bad, you were wrong. What he was feeling now made puberty feel like a walk in the park.

Alec groaned, sitting up. The aches were felt even before he fully regained consciousness. He felt more like someone had stuffed him to the point of bursting from the inside. He felt around cautiously.

His muscles seemed a lot more compact than it had been previously, and they were in no means soft. Now, though, he felt like he was full of fighting strength.

Luckily, he didn't seem to have bulked up too much. It would have been rather bizarre to see a small kid sporting huge muscles, so he was relieved. Outwardly, he looked almost the same as usual.

Alec flopped back down when his arm muscles gave out from under him, falling flat on his back.

When his hand met the floor as he tried to stop his fall, there was a very audible thud.

Alec startled. Bunbun, who had been sleeping by the side, jumped in alarm.

Alec slowly turned to look at the cavern floor and realized that he was thinking too much. There wasn't anything as drastic as an imprint of his hand directly on the ground. Even in that case, he still felt speechless. Just how much had his strength increased for that loud of a sound to occur?

It looked like the boost to his strength was indeed notable. The results were out of his expectations. He thought that it might have increased just a little, not this much.

Bunbun scampered over to him, pawing him.

Alec laughed, pushing away the bunny with relative ease. He paused yet again. The bunny was now big enough to cover his lap. In other words, the bunny was two or so times bigger than a normal rabbit.

Alec climbed up off the ground, hugging the bunny to himself. The human and bunny made a strange sight.

With the bunny clutched in his arms, an eight-year-old was walking around testing out his strength. Alec looked like he was clutching an oversized stuffed toy in his arms. The sight he made would have made a lot of people coo over him.

"Should we go out and test out our strength?"

Alec tentatively started a light jog towards the entrance, only to experience a boost in speed as he tried to sprint as usual, causing him to slam into the wall.

Alec, "…"

He put Bunbun down, this time walking towards the entrance instead.

Alec felt out all the changes in his body, quietly marvelling. This discovery of his had changed the way that he looked at Magitypes in general.

His muscles were so much more compact, but they were still sinewy and flexible. This shouldn't have been possible in a body so young.

Alec almost felt like skipping. This was great! His strength could only go up from here. Of course, each time he used it on himself, he would likely face a severe decline in his magical capacity, but he would just have to work on it continuously like he was already doing.

Reaching the entrance, which was now lit up thanks to the courtesy of his uncle, Alec watched Bunbun rapidly ascend using the footholds that had been installed.

The glee that was radiating across their bond also bolstered Alec's happiness.

He was happy that the bunny would be less vulnerable now. He wouldn't have to constantly worry about him.

Where before the bunny had to rely on Alec to climb up to the surface, he was now able to scale the wall with ease. He did it so quickly and swiftly that it looked like he had been practicing for years.

Alec placed his foot on the lowest foothold, using around half of his strength. His heart skipped a beat when his body flew up. He scrambled to latch onto a handhold. Just like that, he leapt up a quarter of the way.

Studying his body's reactions, Alec slowly started getting used to the additional amount of strength that his body now possessed.

By the time he finished scaling the wall, Alec had a better handle on his strength.

He leapt out with a rare sort of glee that he hardly ever experienced ever since coming to this planet.

Even the sun that shone down seemed brighter to him. He felt like he was lighter.

"Let's go," Alec called to Bunbun.

He had built an obstacle course for himself previously before going down into the underground cavern to test out his strength when he was finished.

Boy and bunny made their way to a certain part of the forest, where Alec had Awakened a bunch of trees previously. The bonds between them was still going strong, and the bonds between the trees reminded him of a lattice.

Alec had come back here during winter to see how the trees would fare in the change of season, but the trees remained lush and green all throughout winter. Some of them even sported flowers, looking like they were right at home.

This caught his attention because the other trees that he hadn't Awakened in comparison had withered leaves and entered a state of dormancy.

The bond between the trees sung, and they fed off each other.

Alec realized that they had learnt how to draw in the latent magic in the air to their own cores, and they were flourishing as a result.

Alec patted one of their trunks and got a hum from them in return.

Now, he had created an obstacle course that used a bunch of fallen trunks and traps that would allow them to test their reaction time.

Alec ran through it first, stumbling at various points as well as falling flat on his face. However, he didn't feel frustrated. There was something raw and satisfying about realizing that he still had a long way to go.

He was able to see and categorize the rapid improvements that he made through the obstacle course. His grip over his newfound strength was slowly but steadily becoming more stable.

By the time he finished, he was still not yet there, but closer.

"Bunbun, go!"

Like a shot, the bunny was off, leaping and ducking under the various branches and objects.

As Bunbun ran the obstacle course, Alec could feel the fundamental change in the bunny's strength. Not only was his strength greatly increased, with his new body mass, the bunny was still as quick as ever.

In fact, the bunny was quicker than he had been before this. Like Alec, Bunbun was experiencing a lapse in judgement at times, but he was able to adapt much quicker. Alec didn't know if it was because of the bunny's natural instincts, but there was never a mistake that repeated.

Once the bunny was done, Alec went again.

The pair of them, owner and pet, alternated like this until they were running out of stamina.

Alec felt like he was bursting with energy and vitality. Well… not literally. He was completely drained and felt like he was about to collapse at any given moment. How the bunny was still able to go around and run was beyond him.

So, his strength had indeed greatly increased, but his stamina was still shit. That didn't put a damper on his elation, however.

"Bunbun, go get us some food."

Alec lay down near the roots of one of the trees, catching his breath.

Before long, the bunny returned, dragging along a boar behind him.

Alec's mouth opened slightly. Actually, he thought that the bunny would bring some sort of fruits or something similar to satiate their appetite, but it looked like the bunny went off to test his strength instead.

Day in and out, sometimes, it felt like the bunny was the Main Character of this world sometimes. Alec paused, laughing. How could that be. Sometimes, his imagination ran away with himself.

Mm. The bunny better not be the Main Character. He had no intention of being a sidekick for the Main Character. Help, sure, since it was his mission, but other than that, he had no intention of going along for the whole damn journey.

Alec eyed the bunny as he worked on dismembering the boar.

Bunbun tilted his head curiously at his owner's actions.