Law was no architectural master, but he was more than capable of creating a new world for the Slu Tribe.
Initially, he only planned to expand the dwelling area for the Slu Tribe. But as the process continued, another idea emerged.
Simply expanding the dwelling would only leave some sword mark, but he wanted to leave a more obvious footprint… proof that he had been here and done this.
So, he conceived the idea of building houses for the Slu Tribesmen, changing their living conditions. That would be a very clear footprint.
With this idea, Law carefully weighed the time and effort required. He even discussed it deeply with Biscuit. The conclusion was: if you think of it, do it.
Although the plan would consume considerable time and energy, it would also yield training effects, which is the fundamental reason Biscuit agreed.
One month, two months, three months...
First, clear out space. Then, cut stone into bricks, have the Slu Tribesmen build a courtyard-house style, and finally, Law would bond it all together.
Even though he could freely expand the Vein Stone cavern's space, Law didn't increase the height too much, so he wouldn't build multi-story houses.
Among the styles, the courtyard house was a good choice.
Since he decided to go all out, Law poured his entire effort into it. Each time, he pushed his Aura to exhaustion before stopping, which, in a way, was also a boring and long practice.
Every time he exhausted himself, Cookie would give him a massage to restore his energy, and then he would continue. Cycle after cycle, the efficiency was amazing.
The dwelling space grew larger and larger, with more and more houses.
Once the number of houses was sufficient, he reserved a large area before stopping this step and started carving furniture… another tedious, lengthy task.
He didn't know how long it would take to materialize the idea in his mind, but Law was very dedicated.
His time was gradually filled, and his strength grew bit by bit.
At the same time, Tonpa's strength also increased slowly. He understood this place was unreasonable and naturally didn't waste time, striving desperately to increase his chances of survival.
Time passed, and a year gone by. Courtyard houses blossomed throughout the Slu Tribe's dwelling, arranged in orderly rows.
Under the light of the fluorescent stones, it looked like a town scene.
On the flat ground, many children ran and played freely, with no worry of bumping into sharp stone corners.
Over the year, besides training, Law also learned the Slu Tribe's language.
Occasionally, he went hunting with the tribesmen, encountered many underground creatures, and increased his stats by consuming high-level ingredients.
In a year, the Slu Tribe's living conditions seemed to leap forward a millennium. They had beautiful houses and furniture, no longer cooked with their feet, learned to make food taste better, and even had an endless supply of monkey wine.
The Restarite was truly marvelous, as it could perfectly replicate monkey wine.
Law even thought to himself, 'The production process of monkey wine was so complex and troublesome, with low yield. If I brought a few Restarites to Linne, she would be very happy. Then Netero could also get a few more gourds of monkey wine from her each year.'
During this time, besides building houses and furniture, Law also made some small items from Vein Stone, like marbles and spikes, mahjong tiles, and chess pieces.
He hadn't yet tried strengthening and fusing the marbles, spikes, and poisons in the Surprise Box. After all, the box's limitation was success rate, so without a sufficient stock of poisons, he wouldn't waste them recklessly.
On this day, Law's stats were about to break through 80%. That meant once he broke through, he would face at least a year and a half, or even two years, of mandatory Zetsu. Now, he needed to make a choice.
Should he break through 80% and then focus on rigorous training within the Slu Tribe's dwelling, waiting out the mandatory Zetsu period?
Or should he leave the Slu Tribe's dwelling directly, continue exploring the underground world, and eventually reach the surface?
Normally, one would choose the first option. After all, in the underground world, it was hard to find a place as safe as the Slu Tribe's.
Most importantly, Law wanted to materialize a Nen Beast similar to Netero's Guanyin. That might require a very long time and calm mind during the training. Moreover, breaking through 80% would definitely help.
Considering all aspects, the result clearly pointed toward breaking through. Yet Law still hadn't made a decision. After some thought, he took Bruna and went to find Biscuit outside the courtyard house.
In a plaza-like area, nearly a hundred Slu Tribe's women were busy working at stone racks.
The racks held many pieces of meat coated with gray powder… a method to extend the meat's shelf life and prevent spoilage and waste.
Biscuit was holding a baby, watching the Slu tribe women work.
After a year with the Slu Tribe, Law and Tonpa trained every day without wasting time, but for Biscuit, it seemed like a bit of a waste.
Law spotted Biscuit from a distance and quickly approached. Glancing at the baby in her arms, he said, "Biscuit, I need to discuss something with you."
Biscuit looked at the baby in her arms and asked, "Is it urgent?"
Law also looked at the baby, then at the baby's mother in the plaza. After a moment, he replied, "Not urgent."
"Then I'll come find you later." Biscuit said, lifting the baby slightly.
Law understood and turned to leave.
The baby was Slufin's son. Slufin was out hunting, and his wife was busy, so he had temporarily entrusted the baby to Biscuit's care.
Over a year, Law and the other outsiders had been fully accepted by the Slu Tribesmen. In their eyes, Law's group was now part of them.
Returning to his house, Law sat quietly on a stone chair, silently opening his Aura Nodes and practicing while he waited.
Bruna sat on a nearby chair, tilting her head as she watched Law using Ren. She could faintly sense a life-like aura emanating from him.
The Buru Tribe couldn't master Nen, and neither could the Slu Tribe, despite being human. Otherwise, Law would have taught them Nen. Perhaps that was the price of their unique talent.
Two hours later, Biscuit arrived at Law's room.
Law slowly opened his eyes, closed his Aura Nodes, and looked at Biscuit. He got straight to the point, expressing his hesitation.
"What do you think?" He asked after explaining.
Biscuit was probably the person in the Hunter x Hunter World who knew the most about Law's secrets. She pinched her chin, thoughtful, but didn't give a decisive suggestion directly.
Instead, she replied, "This place is very safe."
Hearing this, Law fell silent for a moment, then smiled. "I think so too."
With that, the last bit of hesitation in his heart vanished.
So, he would break through. In the currently known safe place, he would wait out the duration of the mandatory Zetsu.
After increasing his strength, it would aid in future explorations.
Three days later, Law's stats broke through 80%, and he entered mandatory Zetsu. He could only strained to maintain a very thin layer of Aura on his body surface. In his consciousness, the White Smoke Font showed a time of exactly three years.
'Three years…'
Law murmured inwardly. He knew if he trained rigorously every day, this period could be shortened to about a year.
Year after year, wholehearted rigorous training was the most boring and difficult.
After a year of rigorous training, Law reached the final second. Powerful Aura erupted wildly from his body, startling Tonpa, who was training outside the courtyard house, disrupting his Aura.
Biscuit was quite far away, but Law's suppressed Aura, once released, was too obvious and immediately caught her attention.
She set aside what she was doing and hurried to the courtyard house.
When she arrived, Law and Tonpa were both there.
Then, Biscuit saw Law holding a fist-sized piece of Vein Stone. A white light glowed from his palm, forming a circle of Nen that enveloped the stone.
Silently, the incredibly hard Vein Stone turned into powder, sifting through Law's fingers.
Watching this, Tonpa's mouth hung open in shock, while Biscuit only pressed her lips together in silence.
Two years ago, it took great effort to break the Vein Stone's hardness. And now, in just a few seconds, he could reduce it to powder. This was the clear difference before and after.
At that moment, Biscuit knew she had been left behind by Law.
The student has surpassed the master.
This was inevitable sooner or later.