2 A shrine maiden?
[New quest!]
[Proving your strength!]
[Objective: Defeat all 50 apprentices.]
[Bonus objective: Don't get hit.]
[Reward: Kendo apprentice(Beginner)]
[Bonus reward: Kendo apprentice(Intermediate)]
[Failure: Get expelled for causing trouble]
[Time limit: 1 hour 35 minutes 52 seconds]
[Accept? Y/N]
"Interesting," Shinji said, calmly pressing accept. He wasn't one to back down from a challenge. And certainly not from something this easily achievable.
He glanced at the student body around him, specifically the ones with the most potential to threaten his quest objective. A level 11, 9, 8 and 7.
Alright...considering that he wasn't able to instantly take down Takeda who was the weakest here besides himself, Shinji admitted that he might be a little in over his head...but only for the next half an hour or so. What with the minimum level in the training hall notwithstanding the instructors on standby being 6, it was only a matter of time until he made his way to the top. It's not like anything was stopping him from grinding it out until he was ready to kick ass smoothly either.
Shinji brandished his bamboo sword, twirling it between his fingers while making his way towards the first of many unsuspecting victims.
"Excuse me," He started, clapping the guy on his shoulder. "Would you like to spar?"
The clueless boy jumped opposite Shinji in surprise. "I sense a malevolent presence inbound!" He hugged himself protectively but soon relaxed as he saw a stunned Shinji staring weirdly. "Oh, it's just you, newbie. Hmm, a spar, huh? Sure man, let me grab my stuff!"
Shinji stayed solemn as the...8th grader went about his way to pick up his headgear and sword.
"Ready whenever you are!" The weirdo informed him.
"Right...let's get right to it then." Shinji launched himself at him with a renewed smirk.
"Woah! You sure are an excitable one, aren't you!?"
His adversary hurried to put up a defence, but Shinji wasn't going to waste time with a proper fight, intending to finish it short so he could get on with the quest.
Shinji bent his legs and swept his sword over his shoulders in a wide arc, leaving himself open as could be. But his opponent didn't get the opportunity to take advantage of this opening as his sword descended rapidly in the form of a basic kendo move augmented by power strike. 'Consecutive strikes!' The blur split into multiple swords, dazing his target long enough to get the hits in.
[Critical hit! x3]
[Opponent defeated!]
[Skill gained: (Kendo Swordsmanship)]
[Kendo Swordsmanship(Active/Passive) - Lvl 1 - The modernized basic foundations of sword techniques descended from Kenjutsu.]
[Effects:
1. Passively increases sword damage by 5%
2. Actively increases sword damage by 10%]
"Damn, you're pretty strong!" The defeated swordsman looked up only to notice the addressed individual in person walking away with his sword propped up upon his shoulders. "And way too rude for a stinking lucky bastard!" He scoffed, shaking his head in disappointment.
Meanwhile, Shinji scoped out his next adversary while roughly estimating the progress he could expect to make by the end of this Kendo session. He was sitting at halfway through level 2 after that last win right now and if the EXP he gained kept going up at the same pace, that is to say, every other fight he fought, then he was looking at a respectful 25-level top.
But of course, it would get harder to level up the higher he reaches, so it would ultimately end up at around 10 levels or under. Still, that was a massive haul he was looking at if he were to factor in the other martial arts dojos he would be visiting later. The thought made him giddy honestly. He could feel that hesitation, indecisiveness, procrastination, anxiety, fear and generally everything that normally held a person back was gone with gamer's mind, making him a terrifyingly efficient machine only directed by the inherently fickle human nature.
Shinji only looked forward to realizing this potential bestowed upon him more and more. It didn't even matter whether he was sent here to serve as entertainment or whatever, he'd show them what happened when you paired limitless growth with the indomitable human spirit.
...
...
...
"I give up!"
[Opponent defeated!]
[Level up!]
...
[Opponent defeated!]
[Kendo Swordsmanship has leveled up!]
...
[Sword mastery has levelled up!]
...
[Kendo Footwork has leveled up!]
...
[Power strike has levelled up!]
...
[Observe has levelled up!]
...
[Time limit: 15 minutes 32 seconds]
...
Shinji huffed, plopping down on the ground uncaring of the various gazes settled on his person. He was finally done. He'd defeated the strongest student and he was still standing unscathed. His level had risen by a solid 11 times, settling down on 13 after his latest conquest.
Cutting down every single level 5 and 6 had taken quite a toll on his stamina, but luckily his increased vitality meant a shorter rest period for him to recover most of his energy. He only had to rest fully at the end.
By now everyone in the training hall had stopped their routine sparring, attention focused raptly on the lone man who left no room for negotiations as he defeated them one by one. They'd long forgotten that they were aggrieved by him, even discarding the notion of baseless arrogance that they attributed to him once they caught on to his schemes, instead replacing it with well-deserved confidence.
Who would have thought that a new student could go toe to toe with much older, experienced, bigger, stronger students and come out on top, after all?
Nobody, mused Sasaki Ken who was back along with his fellow teachers after someone informed him of the happenings here. Not him, not his precious students and not his colleagues. It was like a fish to water the way he fought. Perhaps he'd misjudged the boy. He wasn't just a genius...he might as well be a monster.
Watching Shinji made him emotional, he couldn't help but remember his past. Monsters...he'd seen a lot of them in his time and they had all ended up high up in the world today. He trembled with fear as he saw their shadows behind the resting young man. He was scared, but a part of him was also excited at the prospect of nurturing his own monster. He wanted to be the gate that this fish would leap through to become a dragon.
"I see you're enjoying yourself." Ken stepped forward, sitting down next to Shinji.
Shinji looked at him suspiciously. "I'm only here to get better."
"Ah, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the thrill of self-improvement!"
He shrugged. "I guess so. But what do you want exactly, instructor?"
Ken Sasaki chuckled. "Heh, you saw right through me, huh? Well, it's nothing much. I can't say you're in trouble for disrupting all the classes or anything after witnessing your astonishing exploits, you know? It's just that I noticed something peculiar. You aren't satisfied yet, are you?" He whispered.
Shinji blinked innocently. Indeed, he wasn't satisfied, but that's because his power levelling wasn't over yet. He still had more skills to learn and stats to earn from the other dojos. Not that this instructor needed to know that, though.
"What are you suggesting?" He asked plainly.
"Hehe, I would've asked one of the more able students who has been here for years to fight with you, but seeing as how they don't have classes today, how would you like a little tour of my skills?"
Shinji glanced at the quest submission notice, dismissing it in favour of responding.
"Fight you? Hmm, why not?!" He stood up with a smirk. Frankly, he purely wanted to see how far he could take his win streak at this point.
"Great! I knew you'd be amendable to it!"
"Well, are we gonna do it in front of them?" Shinji pointed around them.
He nodded, "I think it'd be a good learning experience."
Shinji adopted a stance. "You're the boss."
Instructor Ken imitated him, "And the boss says you make the first move, fresh blood! You win if you even so much as touch me!" He boasted.
But Shinji stayed still, observing him with his updated observe skill.
[𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲: Ken Sasaki]
[Title: Kendo instructor]
[𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹: 18]
[𝗛𝗣: 100% 𝗠𝗣: N/A]
[𝗩𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆:<(19) >]
[𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵:<(35) >]
[Dexterity:<(+58) >]
[𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:<(10) >]
[𝗪𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗼𝗺:<(+12) >]
[𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗸:<(+1) >]
——————————————————
A glass cannon, deduced Shinji. But his highest stat was still too much above his own at the moment.
[Dexterity: 13.3]
Even with the footwork skill active, which would increase his dexterity by 200% at its current level of 4, he would still be short of 24.7 points merely to evenly match one of his opponent's stats.
Shinji was as composed as possible. Many different plans were forming in his head on how to win this battle. He still had 60 status points that he could assign at will from levelling up left. He hadn't used a single one so far, making him able to surpass the instructor in any one stat, should he choose. And it would obviously be his own best stat, right? That would put him at a huge advantage with a dexterity stat of over 200 when boosted by his skills, after all.
But Shinji disagreed. He could just as easily raise all his stats in due time. All except one. The luck stat. Often the most neglected stat for no reason, because it was in actuality the most broken in his humble opinion.
Seriously, imagine having the option to change the difficulty of life and not putting it in easy mode. Only a bumbling idiot or a hardcore masochist would be opposed to that.
Shinji pulled up the description of a skill.
[Power strike(Active/Passive) - Lvl 3 - Allows the user to strike a target with a powerful blow.]
[+17% crit rate]
[+150% damage]
He grinned, closing the window as he looked back at the man opposite him. They stared at each other intently. Ken Sasaki was very much curious as to how Shinji would deal with an enemy out of his league, watching him doing some kind of hand gesture.
Shinji dumped all his points in luck, gambling away his chances at a promised victory.
[Luck: 61]
[Luck has reached a threshold!]
[Skill gained: (Fighter of Fortune)]
[Fighter of Fortune(Passive) - Lvl MAX - Increases luck by 25% when in combat.]
[Luck: 61->76.2]
"Perfect!" Shinji mumbled.
"What is?" His teacher asked amusedly.
"You'll see."
They rushed, practically floating towards the other as if invisible magnets were pulling them together. Their swords clashed and Shinji was forced to retreat as his opponent overpowered him, not letting up even as he chased him with a storm of swings that could take him down in one fell swoop.
Shinji strained to avoid the hits that didn't magically gloss over him by a hair's breadth so much that even the system considered it an achievement.
[+1 Dexterity]
And it counted as valuable help as the distance of the incoming hits got slightly larger.
Although, Shinji wasn't planning on keeping up this silly dance forever. He didn't want to test his newly acquired luck that badly. His speed was way too below the Instructor's for him to bet on those chances. Well, not in that way, at least. He struggled fiercely and managed to retreat a safe distance without a threatening bamboo sword on his tail, taking a deep breath for what he was about to do next.
His opponent gratefully stopped as well, giving him room to breathe in peace.
But he had no idea how much he would regret that.
Shinji dropped his stance, sword hanging by his side and befuddling his opposition. He slowly lifted his left hand and prepared to do something.
Ken Sasaki had never been this intrigued in the past decade. What could this newborn monster have in store for him that would make him so confident?
His razor-sharp focus broke as he saw the monstrous teenager...pose. What?
[Skill gained: (Fools Act)]
[Fools Act(Active) - Lvl 1 - It makes enemies doubt the mental state of the user. 1% chance to confuse enemies for 2 seconds.]
[Enemy stunned!]
Now! Shinji charged up a power strike and hit him hard in the temple.
[Critical hit!]
Instructor Ken fell with a tumble.
[Opponent defeated!]
[Level up!]
[Hidden objective completed!]
[Hidden objective: Defeat an instructor]
[Hidden reward: Kendo apprentice(Advanced)]
[Redeem quest to claim rewards? Y/N]
[Time limit: 5 minutes 59 seconds]
Shinji looked at the last notification with surprise. So there was something like that too, huh?
He submitted the quest.
[New title!]
[Kendo apprentice(Advanced) - Increases EXP gain of Kendo-related skills by 300%]
"That's it for today, classes are dismissed!"
One of the instructors shouted as the rest moved to gently pick up Instructor Ken.
"You too! Go home now!" They pointed at Shinji.
He smiled wryly.
...
...
...
Shinji returned home late at night after the gym. He'd been through the dojos he signed up for throughout the day, but unfortunately, only the first one yielded as many rewards. Sure, he'd seen a pretty explosive stat growth for a single day, although his level-up rate had slowed down considerably in comparison. He had only earned 3 levels total from the 3 dojos he joined after Kendo besides the basic title and skill acquisitions. But it couldn't be helped if they had less quantity and quality to offer.
He took a look at his updated status panel.
——————————————————
𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲: Shinji
Title: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿, Kendo apprentice(Advanced), Kyudo apprentice(Intermediate), Shorinji Kempo apprentice(Beginner), Iaido apprentice(Intermediate)
𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹: 17 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗹𝘃:(01.69%)
——————————————————
𝗛𝗣: 1600/16𝟬𝟬(15/min)
𝗠𝗣: 960/960(9/min)
——————————————————
𝗩𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆:<(+12) >
𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵:<+(14) >
Dexterity:<(+16)— >(21.1)>
𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:<(+6) >
𝗪𝗶𝘀𝗱𝗼𝗺:<(+8) >
𝗟𝘂𝗰𝗸:<(+61) >
——————————————————
Status 𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁: 20
——————————————————
Skills:
...
[Bow Mastery(Passive) - Lvl 3 - Allows the user to freely handle bows.]
[+30% bow damage]
[+15% bow speed]
...
[Kyudo bowmanship(Active/Passive) - Lvl 2 - The modernized basic foundations of bow skills descended from kyujutsu]
[+10% passive bow damage]
[+20% active bow damage]
...
[Unarmed Mastery(Passive) - Lvl 2 - Allows the user to fight freely barehanded]
[+20% unarmed damage]
[+10% unarmed speed]
...
[Shorinji Kempo(Active/Passive) - Lvl 2 - The modified version of Shaolin Kung Fu]
[+10% Passive unarmed damage]
[+20% active unarmed damage]
...
Shorinji Kempo footwork(Active/Passive) - Lvl 1 - Basic footwork. You cannot do Shorinji Kempo without this.]
[+5% passive movement speed]
[+50% active movement speed]
...
[Iaido Swordsmanship(Active/Passive) - Lvl 2 - Basic sword techniques focused on speed]
[+5% passive sword speed]
[+20% active sword speed]
...
Iaido Footwork(Active/passive) - Lvl 1 - Basic footwork. Without this you cannot do Iaido.]
[+5% passive movement speed]
[+50% active movement speed]
——————————————————
Shinji hummed. Now that he had a daily means of grinding stat points and levels, even if it would slow down to a crawl soon enough, he had to look into the magical side of things. He'd avoided this topic at the start and just went straight to the muscle-brained route, but that's because he wanted to clear his headspace of all the clutter. It's not like he knew any other way and it worked like a charm, so there was frankly no harm done.
Given that he had no inkling as to what could be coming for him, having magic in his hands would be a tremendous trump card. Hell, it could even be the ghosts of his dead parents coming back to haunt him for possessing their grieving son or something and it's not like he could smack spirits with a stick, or could he?
Well. skills like power strike did use his mana so maybe he wouldn't be completely helpless? He laughed at the absurdity of his thoughts.
Still, Shinji didn't know how to actively make use of his mana. There was no protective barrier/Gaia's veil thingy here as far as he knew and that meant his attempts weren't directly supplemented with the planet itself serving as a crutch.
But when you thought of magic and mages in general, intelligence and wisdom were obviously the stats to focus on. So how to go about increasing them while getting a feel for his mana?
He could always read more books, he supposed.
[+1 Wisdom!]
...or become a mediocre detective. He rolled his eyes.
But he already had a better idea.
Shinji pondered. He had spent 10 whole hours going to and fro, which means he still had 14 hours left to fill up his schedule for the week. That's where his idea came in. Those 8 hours or so he would be spending on sleep were better spent doing anything more productive.
Like meditation, for example. Meditation was a pretty staple skill for mages, wasn't it? But would it be useful in aiding him control mana and increase his stats?
Only one way to find out, Shinji mused, getting comfortable on his bed as he prepared himself to waste a better part of the night metaphorically flailing around in the dark.
What do you even do to meditate anyway? He had never done it before, so he was kinda hoping the game would take care of that as it always did.
He closed his eyes after adjusting to a lotus position. He just had to empty his mind, right? That's all his knowledge on the subject amounted to...
"Fuck it," Shinji said, trying his best to stop the incessant torrent of thoughts flooding his mind every second.
Minutes ticked by gently like the passing of the wind as he found it increasingly easier to achieve the state of mind he was chasing after. Perhaps it was because of gamer's mind, or his own efforts, but Shinji finally heard the sweet sound he had been waiting for at the 30-minute mark. Along with this came a warm sensation from deep inside his body.
[Meditation(Active/Passive) - Lvl1 - Connect with the energy of nature and temporarily enter a higher form of consciousness. A skill that magicians use to access and grow their mana pool. Cannot be used while moving and/or in combat.]
[Passive: ]
[+2% HP]
[+2% MP]
[+1% INT]
[+1% WIS]]
[Active: ]
[+10% HP regeneration]
[+10% MP regeneration]
"Damn." Shinji stared at the skill description. He had no words. This was probably his best skill yet. It was just...perfect. He clenched his fist, concentrating on the heat building up in his abdomen that accompanied the skill. It began to glow a soft, resonating blue light as he then moved the energy in his palm. And in the corner of his vision, another box appeared.
[Skill gained: (Mana Ball)]
[Mana Ball(Active) - Lvl 1 - Allows the user to summon a simple ball of pure mana]
[Range: Variable]
[Mana cost: Variable]
"That's convenient," Shinji muttered. He could change the size of the ball from a grape to a basketball and even bigger if he didn't fear blowing a hole in his roof. It all depended on how much mana he pumped into it. But he couldn't change the shape outside of that of a sphere sadly. He wished to dismiss the magic and watched as it exploded into tiny particles flowing back inside him.
In any case, he now had a new skill to prioritize. Shinji wasted no time in getting back to meditating. It was addicting to hear the ping of level-ups that popped up every hour. To see the rapid growth of his recently unlocked mana along with his HP, INT and WIS was a great motivation reminding him to keep going.
Very soon, many hours had elapsed and sunlight shone through his window again.
Shinji opened his eyes involuntarily.
[Meditation has reached level 8!]
Oh, he would have loved nothing more than to continue until the skill was maxed out, but unfortunately, that would mean failing his quest that he needed to complete within a week. He also didn't want to get into the argument of whether it would be worth it either, because first of all, it would make him no different from those cultivators even if he could understand how they felt now.
Like hell, he was eating, drinking and breathing nothing but magical air! Call him vain or whatever, but just because he didn't need to didn't mean he wasn't going to.
He wore his clothes and set out of the house on a stroll absentmindedly. Shinji wondered hard about how to get stronger and even faster as he jogged. There was no fixed destination on his mind initially, but he stroked his chin in thought as he spotted an empty park with a dense forest. It seemed like the ideal place to test some magic to him. He had 6 hours to waste, anyway.
[+1 Vitality!]
He made his way deep into the greenery, making sure there was nobody within a good distance of him by circling the area a few times. There were only some small flower fields and a lake nearby, none of which had any visitors at the moment to his joy.
Shinji summoned the lowest unit of mana ball he could, firing it off at a giant tree.
[-1 MP!]
He gradually worked his way up, repeating the process to familiarize himself with the way that mana worked.
A good few hours and hundreds of experiments later, he was able to conjure up and replicate a decent number of skills that would prove useful in the future.
[Mana Shield(Active) - Lvl 1 - Allows the user to deploy a spherical shield of mana.]
[Mana cost: 30 MP]
[Additional cost: 50 MP/min]
[Spiral Mana Ball(Active) - Lvl 1 - Allows the user to summon a stronger version of mana ball with more penetrative power and that can hold more mana at the cost of a longer charging time]
[+500~1000% damage]
[Charging time: 5~10 seconds]
[Mana cost: 100~500 MP]
[Mana Bolt(Active) - Lvl 1 - Allows the user to summon a lesser version of mana arrow]
[Projectiles: 1]
[Mana Cost: 8 MP]
Shinji swept his wet hair back. He'd had to test out the spiral mana ball by diving inside of the lake. The skill was too destructive to be used on trees that could bury him alive and get reported by a local news station this very evening. And it was a shame he couldn't make mana arrow in the end, having to settle down for its crappier cousin because of his shitty mana control.
That just meant grinding out the INT stat even more for him. He didn't want to be a fighter that only had one trick up his sleeves, after all. Soon, his stats would be balanced out. Being a jack of all trades was right up his alley since he preferred versatility over everything else. And a jack of all trades was often better than a master of one.
The drenched teenager sat by the lakeside for a while to let his clothes dry out and meditated to recover his mana.
Not wanting to stay idle for too long though, he quickly got back into the tedious but rewarding grind to level up his skills.
He only stopped as it hit noon with the sun positioned right over his head. It was his sign to go train at the dojo now.
Shinji took out his phone, opening the map to find the nearest route he could take. As he was looking through all the road names though, he suddenly recalled a nostalgic memory.
Now that he thought of it, he already knew this city of Okaya long before he was dropped here.
This was where the Moriya shrine was located. The inspiration behind the Moriya cast from Mountain of Faith. He remembered how the shrine was riddled with trinkets of the characters from the game from what he'd seen online.
He was eager to see if it was still the same even if if he was technically in the past now. Most importantly, he would be there in person this time.
The gamer hummed cheerfully as he followed the GPS to the shrine. Maybe he could offer a prayer or two? Hopefully, the Gods would hear it and give him answers on his whereabouts.
It took no more than 5 minutes to reach the shrine from where he was previously situated. Good thing he wandered close to that park.
Shinji stopped at the entrance as he glimpsed an unusual gal on the premises.
There was a girl...a shrine maiden. Garbed in green and blue? He didn't know shrine maidens cosplayed. But maybe it was allowed to appeal to the game fanbase by dressing up like the character inspired by the story behind this shrine, who knows?
The teenage girl perked up as she noticed someone standing still at the foot of the shrine stairs, staring up at her peculiarly. She hoped it wasn't a creep again...but she still had to greet all visitors the same. She sighed, depositing the broom she was sweeping the floor with to welcome the guy who looked to be about her age group.
"Hello... I'm Sanae Kochiya, the shrine maiden of the Moriya Shrine...are you here to pay a visit?"
"Wha-" Shinji was bewildered at what observe showed him.
[Quest completed!]
