While the two women were bathing, Leo was busy as well.
Because in the end, he still pushed his Endurance stat to the maximum.
The moment Endurance hit max level, he felt that his body had completely changed. The sensation of throwing a punch was utterly different—every movement felt as though it consumed no energy at all. Even if he tried his best to burn through his stamina, he could still clearly feel that as long as he wanted to keep going, he absolutely could.
Even when he threw a full-force strike, he could vaguely sense a bit of exertion—but in the very next instant, his body replenished itself completely.
It was nothing less than transcending humanity.
"This is unbelievable…"
Supporting himself against the female merchant's hips, Leo felt his body still brimming with vitality and couldn't help but voice his amazement.
It wasn't just stamina or hardness—his output had increased as well. Before, it took three times to completely fill her; now, once was enough.
And his recovery speed was terrifying. In just one or two minutes, he was fully reloaded again.
There was only one small issue…
"This burns through nutrients like crazy…"
Feeling hunger creeping into his stomach, Leo immediately realized that this power didn't come without a price. The cost was the nutrients, protein, and water in his body.
Which made perfect sense. If it consumed nothing at all, that would've been abnormal.
It was just that his food intake had already skyrocketed due to increased labor, and lately he'd been surviving on high-fat, high-calorie canned food and meat—otherwise he wouldn't have been able to sustain this at all.
If he kept burning through nutrients this recklessly…
"Would I starve to death?"
As he felt his "little brother" automatically shut down due to lack of fuel, Leo nodded to himself.
Very scientific.
But he also knew that if he were well-fed and hydrated, and desire kicked in again, this thing would become an absolute nightmare to deal with.
"I need to find some clean, soft fabric and make underwear. Damn it—why didn't I ever realize how great underwear was before?"
Leo disliked restrictive clothing, so he usually slept naked. Sometimes, when rushing to work, he didn't wear underwear at all. Back then, he never thought much of it—but now the inconvenience was painfully obvious.
After giving one last squeeze to the merchant's breasts—soft like water yet shockingly firm—Leo pressed E in his mind again and opened the merchant's shop.
Her disheveled hair, the fine sweat on her forehead, and the flush on her face all vanished instantly.
Leo then began browsing her inventory.
And immediately noticed—
The stock had refreshed.
Not only were there dozens of new cuts of meat, but a lot of useful items had appeared as well. As he casually moved about, he carefully checked what was new.
There were seed items that had never appeared before, and even rotting flesh for sale—something Leo had never seen listed.
Still, those weren't necessities for now. He went straight to the weapons section.
The iron pipe SMG's 15-round magazine was still too small. No matter how fast he reloaded, there was always downtime. But the merchant's weapons were still absurdly expensive—several thousand casino tokens per gun.
Leo had over ten thousand tokens from quests and trades over the past few days, but that didn't mean he could spend them recklessly.
And then—
"They're selling a forge and a chemistry station this time?"
Leo stared at the chemistry station in the merchant's inventory while lightly rolling her nipples between his fingers.
Gunpowder wasn't an issue at the moment. Even if hand-crafting was slow, production wasn't a concern—Tsunade's mining speed alone guaranteed supply.
Still, Leo bought both the forge and the chemistry station anyway, mainly to ensure that the three of them could travel light and stay combat-ready.
After tossing them into storage, he continued browsing.
In the end, Leo only bought some medicine and food, the forge and chemistry station, forty Molotov cocktails, and all available gasoline.
He didn't buy anything else, leaving himself with about five thousand Duke Casino Tokens.
"These should go to Kelly and Tsunade. I'll see what they need."
Another half hour passed before Leo finally stepped out of the merchant's shop. His stomach growling, he checked the crafting options at the workbench—and immediately spotted something new.
"Steel frames…"
After thinking it over, Leo crafted 300 steel frames, since the description listed them as having 10,000 HP each.
And no matter how you looked at it, steel had to be sturdier than wood, right?
The only downside was the crafting time—two and a half minutes per frame. Finishing this batch would take until at least tomorrow morning.
"I'll make some first and see. Kelly said she might be able to fix the cement mixer—if reinforced concrete turns out tougher than steel frames, then I won't waste materials on these."
Opening his forge, Leo immediately froze.
There were over ten thousand steel ingots inside, and the forge was still completely full of iron being smelted.
"Tsunade's mining speed is just ridiculous…"
Leo couldn't help complaining. He'd had to craft dozens of storage boxes just to hold the ore Tsunade dug up—and even the forge couldn't keep up with her output.
He immediately pulled out a batch of steel ingots, placed them on the workbench, and started crafting steel frames. He also transferred all his ammunition into his inventory.
"Should be enough bullets… right?"
Looking at the ten thousand-plus rounds in his inventory, Leo still wasn't confident.
He didn't know if it would truly be enough.
That overwhelming sense of despair—the endless, densely packed horde of zombies—was still burned into his memory.
"I hope it's enough."
Taking a deep breath, Leo returned to camp and exchanged inventory items with the two women, handing over food and part of the ammunition.
Then he went to take a bath.
Dinner passed uneventfully. The area around the merchant had been completely excavated, leaving only a narrow path for entry and exit, so there was no need to worry about zombies.
But…
Only when it came time to sleep did Leo realize something.
He'd forgotten—again—to build a new house.
And a bed.