The unusual 'fishing' training nearly dragged Law into the lake, but he managed to hold on until the vine finally snapped.
If it weren't for the hard training in the previous month, without his Aura, Law would have been helplessly pulled into the water the moment the fish took the bait.
The pulling force generated by the strange fish was over one ton. Not only that, it was so full of energy that it showed no signs of exhaustion at the moment the vine snapped. Instead, Law had collapsed onto the ground, completely spent.
For a full hour, they were locked in a stalemate. Law's arms had to keep exerting force to maintain the stalemate, but in terms of endurance, he was completely defeated.
'I only managed to pull it back less than half a meter...'
Law lay directly on the ground. During the one-hour rally, he kept trying to pull the vine back, but in the end, he only managed to pull it back a short distance.
As his muscles relaxed, Law found that he couldn't even lift his arms anymore. The sheer strain on his arms had finally taken its toll.
Biscuit walked over and summoned Cookie to massage Law's fatigued arms.
"We'll continue in an hour."
After saying that, she returned to the area that had been cleared earlier, where several logs had already been laid down. It seemed that they were really planning to build a wooden cabin.
Law enjoyed Cookie's massage and his arms gradually regained sensation.
He turned to look at the kneeling figure beside him and smiled, "Thanks."
Cookie showed a sweet smile in response but remained silent.
Thanks to Cookie's assistance, Law was able to maintain the high-intensity training. However, over the past month, Law noticed that Cookie never spoke, and she did not seem to be as smart as Black Cat.
While Law was enjoying the massage, Black Cat suddenly appeared from the back of Law's hand and said with a smile: "Cookie-chan, can you give me a massage too?"
However, Cookie showed no reaction.
Black Cat remained unfazed. It circled around Cookie, constantly making flirtatious remarks in an attempt to grab her attention.
However, Cookie remained focused on her massage, completely ignoring the chatterbox.
"Shut up, or I'll erase you!" Seeing Black Cat's antics, Law's forehead was full of black lines, and he threw out a threat.
Black Cat made a 'tsk' sound, held its head with its hands, and floated in the air with its legs crossed. After a while, it floated over to find Biscuit and Sanbica, but was conscripted on the spot.
…
Days passed, and a simple wooden cabin was finally completed by the lakeside.
Unfortunately, Law couldn't use Aura at the moment, otherwise, with the right materials, he could have built a much nicer cabin in no time.
Every day, Law continued his tug-of-war battles with the lake's monstrous fish. He eventually realized that there were multiple strange fishes lurking beneath the surface. Once, he encountered a much stronger fish that he had no choice but to let go of the vine.
As the days passed, the training began to show its effects.
Through countless tug-of-war battles, Law was able to pull the vine back farther and farther. However, he was never able to pull the strange fish ashore or exhaust its strength.
After two months of relentless effort, Law finally caught the biggest strange fish in the lake. At that point, the training turned into a game of toying with the creature.
When Biscuit saw that Law had completed the second training challenge, she announced the end of this challenge. To celebrate the occasion, Law decided to cook and eat the strange fish he had caught.
With the guidance of the white smoke font, Law identified the edible parts of the fish. Since it was a C-level ingredient, it was cooked into a delicious pot of fish soup. However, after eating it, Law's average data only increased by 0.2%.
During the three months in the Milsy Wetlands, Biscuit took care of the meals. Apart from the first month, which consisted entirely of Great Stamp's meat, the two months spent fishing by the lake brought a more varied diet.
Among them, Law ate a lot of D-level ingredients, but his data remained unchanged. He had only eaten C-level ingredients twice, and both times, his average data increase was less than 0.1.
From this, it can be seen that the effect of food-based enhancements had been significantly reduced, or perhaps, only higher-ranked ingredients could yield noticeable improvements.
If even C-level ingredients had such a minimal impact, then B-level ingredients would likely be the minimum standard needed for meaningful progress.
After Law realized this problem, he didn't dwell on it too much. His focus still remained primarily on physical training.
During the training, Law tried to convince Sanbica to join him in strengthening her body, but she politely declined, and he didn't insist.
After completing one training challenge, Biscuit immediately introduced the next.
Thanks to three months of intense training combined with a well-balanced diet, Law's physique had grown significantly stronger. He had built visible muscles, and while it's not as exaggerated as Biscuit's transformed state, it is sturdy and well-proportioned.
Then, they changed their location.
Biscuit led Law and Sanbica across the wetlands and came to the Split Mountain in the Visca Forest Preserve, the second test location from the original Hunter Exam. (T/N: From what I know, Split Mountain is far from Visca Forest Preserve, as they need to use airship to reach there in the original work.)
At the bottom of the canyon is a river that led directly to the ocean. The current was so fierce that it could sweep a person dozens of kilometers downstream within minutes. Falling into the river without exceptional swimming skills was practically a death sentence.
Upon reaching Split Mountain, Law immediately scaled the cliffs by hand. He climbed to the summit before leaping into the canyon and landing on the webs of Spider Eagles.
Clusters of eggs, resembling grapes, hung from the web. Each egg was about the size of an ostrich egg.
Without hesitation, Law plucked a bunch of the eggs and effortlessly returned to the summit.
Although Spider Eagle's eggs were only D-level ingredients and have no effect on Law's strength growth, Law was curious to try their taste. After all, this is something that every examinee in the original work calls delicious.
Biscuit didn't say anything about Law's willful behavior. After all, she had witnessed how hard Law had been training over the past months.
After tasting the rich flavor of the raptor spider eggs, Law felt utterly satisfied and the lingering taste stayed in his mouth for a long time. With that small break, he moved on to the third training challenge.
This time, Law has to maintain balance at the bottom of a fast-flowing river and hold his breath for more than ten minutes. His ultimate goal is to be able to walk freely at the bottom of the river.
After this challenge, the next step involved swimming upstream against the current. The difference is that what Law needs to face is not only the water current, but also various constraints to increase the difficulty.
Time flew by, and another three months passed in the blink of an eye. Law had completed the first phase of body training and gained amazing results, largely thanks to Biscuit and her Nen Beast.
After finishing his training at Split Mountain in one month, they moved on to a massive waterfall, where Law spent another two months on the final challenge of his physical conditioning.
After half a year, Law's Aura was unsealed, and he was ready to enter the second phase of his training, practicing his Nen Techniques.
Over those six months, Law had become intimately familiar with Milsy Wetlands and surrounding areas. He imagined how fun it would be if he were to serve as the examiner for the 287th Hunter Exam, as it that took place in this location and was attended by Gon and Hisoka.
At the same time, Law's physical strength has undergone a drastic change, though there is still a gap compared to Atomu.
At the Zoldyck Family's estate, there was a famous 'Testing Gate', also known as the 'Gate of Trials'. It consisted of seven progressively heavier stone gates. The first gate weighed four tons, and each subsequent gate doubled in weight.
The seventh and final gate had a combined weight of 256 tons, while the sixth gate weighed 128 tons.
Six months ago, Law couldn't even budge the four-ton first gate, but now, without using Aura, he could barely push open the sixth gate.
In fact, after the first phase of training was over, Law had an idea, which was to go visit Zoldyck Family's estate and push the Testing Gate.