Those black boxes in page 7 denote the passage of time.
Oh and finally a hint at his level? Should be level 36. Not bad? More than halfway through 50 which is considered strong.
Edit:
is currently <= 19 based on one of the next chapters which says he's level 19 at that time. So does that mean the system sometimes give out more than 1 stat point per level up?
It's funny to me that 22 chapters in people are still trying to decipher or criticize the RPG mechanics system of this story when it's clear that
a) the author barely has any idea what they're doing
b) the author is incredibly inconsistent about when they apply logic to what's happening or how their created system works
c) the story is totally willing to forego consistently explaining and laying out what is happening as the MC levels up and gets/applies points, choosing instead to just address it whenever they want and make things seem suspiciously randomly made-up or adjusted as needed.
d) A lot of what the author is doing is relying on simply telling you how things are/should be/can be expected to work rather than showing and demonstrating those things.
It's not worth breaking your brain in an attempt to justify what happens when it simply feels like it's barely on-the-rails asspull after barely-on-the-rails asspull. But it's doubly not worth getting too in the weeds for when your logic is based on specific real-world games and what you believe those systems say about how it's right for things to be addressed when really the author is free to do whatever he wants whenever he wants.