Chapter 96: Lion Heart Wants to Train Me

“Your ability can hold this much stuff inside? Can you store more things?”

Lion Heart was quite shocked after I absorbed all the crates. At first, he thought that eventually my storage would run out of space and we would have to store those crates inside the ship, which wasn’t a big problem at all.

But it didn’t happen. All the crates were stored, and he wanted more.

I did a quick check on my pocket dimension to answer him.

“There’s still space. Do you want to store more items?”

Lion Heart thought for a second.

“I think it’s enough. It’s not like we can’t find food on the new continent. We already have a few settlements there, even some farms, awesome, right?”

The expression on his face was one of pure excitement. He enjoyed the idea of sailing and visiting a new place, one that others had yet to fully explore. I was with him in that regard. It sounded like quite the adventure.

Ethan and Tom texted me early in the morning, both feeling a bit sad that they weren’t coming with us on that adventure just yet. I did my best to explain to them that the dangers ahead were too great, and that they had to become stronger.

“I can’t believe you’re already rank A, damn. I’ll do my best to catch up to you.”

This message was sent by Tom. Ethan already knew I was quite strong, so he wasn’t that shocked. He was hiding his power too, so…

That same morning, someone came by Lion Heart’s mansion, bringing my rank A hunter badge. It had a similar quality to the one Lion Heart had, but the material was clearly still inferior. Made sense. He was rank S, I wasn’t.

With my badge in hand, I had to stare at it for a while. Not long ago I barely had any prospect of becoming someone powerful with the ability I had, and now I had achieved rank A. It sounded too good to be true sometimes.

Lion Heart saw me staring at the badge. He smiled.

“Good job, kid. Now, I’m sorry, but we need to leave. The ship is waiting for us.”

His personal driver drove us to the harbor where our ship was waiting. It wasn’t a cruise ship, but it was quite nice as well. Big enough to fit at least 50 people.

The most eye-catching thing on that ship was a lion’s face on its hull. It wasn’t only there, though. There was also a flag with a lion’s head on it. Everyone who saw it would know the ship belonged to Lion Heart, no doubt about it.

Others were already waiting by the harbor when we got there. More rank A hunters, and some rank B, were going with us to the new continent. The rank B hunters that were allowed to go had support-type abilities, and wouldn’t be participating in much fighting or exploration. It was just to help with the settlements, like building more houses, improving the security, taking care of the farms, animals, and so on.

I would be one of those people too if not for my rapid growth in power.

The moment I left the car with Lion Heart, all the hunters waiting there looked at us. Some were seeing him for the first time in person, not having the strength to hold back their emotions upon seeing him. The man was truly inspirational to many people.

But once their gazes fell on me, I knew very well they were wondering who I was, and why I was with Lion Heart.

Some even whispered that I was rank S too. For them, the only way to become Lion Heart’s personal friend was being a rank S hunter. They weren’t completely wrong, but Lion Heart wasn’t fond of many of the rank S hunters from the US.

We walked together toward the ship. The sailors were already preparing everything for us. All we had to do was hop on and leave.

“Attention, everyone,” Lion Heart called out.

“This expedition is an important milestone. We need to do it well.”

He looked at each person for a second to fire them up.

“Each one of you here has been selected because of your achievements, and of course, power. If you’re here, then it means you’re special. It means I saw the potential in you to be on this expedition with me.”

His voice grew louder, and people yelled right after his speech ended. A quick one, sure, and not the best one out there, but it did its job, and that was the most important thing.

I was with Lion Heart the whole time. He didn’t speak much with the other hunters. He only answered some of their questions, nothing like an actual conversation.

One of the sailors came over to us.

“Hunters, I’ll show each one of you to your individual room. Please, follow me.”

The rooms were in a specific part of the ship, all together. I thought I would be going there as well, but Lion Heart pulled me aside.

“There’s another section with more luxurious rooms. I have one there, and you do too.”

I wasn’t expecting that good of a treatment. Loved it, for sure, but I wondered what the others would think about it.

We visited the luxurious rooms Lion Heart had talked about. They were nice, but still rooms inside a not-so-big ship, so way worse than the ones in his mansion.

When the ship sailed, I could feel it moving with the waves, not the same experience as a cruise ship, though I had never been on one to know for sure.

Lion Heart’s room was right next to mine. I went there and knocked.

“Come in,” he said.

I pushed the door open, and saw Lion Heart in different clothes. He was no longer wearing his formal suit, but shorts and a white tank top. Strange, as he was known for being a classy man, always in a suit.

In fact, most of his viral clips on the Internet were of him fighting villains and monsters while wearing a black suit. It had become his trademark.

“Why are you dressed like this?” I asked him.

Lion Heart frowned at the question.

“To hit the gym. Isn’t that obvious? There aren’t that many things to do until we reach the new continent, so training is the way to go.”

His point was valid, sure. What would I do? Absorb monster crystals, for starters. Eat, sleep, maybe read a few books, watch the ocean.

But all of those things were secondary at that moment because Lion Heart grabbed my arm and dragged me to the gym…

The gym was quite big, way bigger than it should have been considering the size of that ship. Not just ordinary gym equipment with special weights for hunters, but also two training rooms for one-on-one fights, or just normal ability practice.

I wondered why Lion Heart trained in the first place. He was acting like Zoen’s son, who also wanted me to train with him for some reason.

Lion Heart activated his ability once we were in the gym, changing completely, turning into a massive, tall man with muscles so big I knew he wouldn’t fit through the gym door. Maybe that’s why he used his ability only after we were already inside…

He grabbed some dumbbells and started doing bicep curls. The veins on his arm were almost exploding, and the golden aura around his body was quite intimidating. We were friends, but I didn’t feel like staying too close to him, honestly.

“Come, try it.”

I went there to grab the weight, but the moment I did, it instantly fell to the ground, hitting it with tremendous force. Nothing happened to the floor, but it almost landed on my feet, which was quite scary.

“What the fuck is this made of? I can’t even lift this thing.”

Lion Heart chuckled.

“There are other weights for you to try. Absorbing crystals to improve your body is essential and the main thing to do, but hitting the gym with these special weights suited for hunters is a must too. With them, you can make full use of the crystal’s energy when absorbing it.”

“Really?”

I had no idea if he was telling me the truth or just using some bullshit excuse to hit the gym and get the pump. I had never seen something like that on the Internet, but there were so many useful things that weren’t widely known, so perhaps Lion Heart was speaking the truth after all.

There was no harm in hitting the gym when there was nothing better to do… We trained full body together, and after the workout was over, Lion Heart wanted to go into the private training room to spar with me.

Sure, he wasn’t going to hit me directly, but he wanted to see if I had improved.

“Let me see if you really have the strength to survive on this new continent.”

I’m sure he knew I had it, but for some reason he wanted to fight me bare-handed. I wasn’t going to back down, obviously.

The thing was, this time, Lion Heart wasn’t just blocking my attacks… When I said yes, he ran toward me and punched me in the chest.

I went flying toward the other side of the room and hit the wall hard, with lots of broken bones, spitting blood on the floor.

Lion Heart wasn’t going easy this time. It was official training.