7 First Thrill

Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan - 02:20 AM

After relentlessly slaying the wolves for almost two hours, Jin-woo felt the exhaustion catching up to him. All the levels he gained, they were not enough to conceal the pain in his sore muscles. Though, he couldn't leave the place, not until he defeated the boss. He could try and do the daily quest here and try to earn the status regeneration, but nothing could guarantee that the main curse wouldn't show up.

[Fatigue: 69]

'The curse down there must be a real deal, since I can feel the ominous presence even from here. Interesting… my senses also improved so much due to the system.' The points invested in perception allowed him to feel the cursed energy much better in other beings as well as his own.

Until the adrenaline rush prevailed, Jin-woo had to hurry up and defeat the boss. He checked if he was still able to swing the dangers that endured so much for this long… he had some strength remaining. He couldn't buy anything on the market, but he shouldn't have any need for that.

'Let's get going…' At the bottom of the large staircase was blooming darkness, past which his eyes were unable to perceive. He walked down slowly, each second attempting to locate the cursed spirit. It was not in sight, but there was a stream of water running beside the platform instead of there being a railway…

The place very much looked like swamps. Jin-woo walked down the stairs cautiously, knowing that the beast which would appear would be something akin to a reptile… Otherwise, he couldn't think of other things that inhabited the swamp.

He had hard time maintaining the usual composure, as the ominous aura consumed him. His breathing quickened out of blue, he really felt different from previous times. As if, all the drive he had already died down. 'Where is it…' Jin-woo kept looking around.

'A… snake.' It was enormous. The cursed spirit's size was a direct indication to its grade, it couldn't simply be a low grade curse with that size. 'It is definitely a grade two, it can't be lower than that.' Just the scales on the being was the size of Jin-woo's head. It was tens of meters in length and probably weighed multiple tons.

'My daggers won't be able to pierce it…'

…

Tokyo Jujutsu High

"Satoru, any updates on the progress of your first student?" Masamichi Yaga was concerned about the matter due to the interest Jujutsu Higher ups had for Jin-woo. This was also the first time for Gojo, as an official teacher at Jujutsu High. Matter of fact, he had a lot of trouble acquiring the qualifications of the teacher due to his laid back attitude.

Gojo in the middle of the conversation kept eating his snacks, "Hm~ Nom ~ It's going very well, ~ nom ~, he is actually doing rather good. I was even surprised. Before the actual semester begins, he'll probably be on the level of sorcerers with innate techniques."

"If you discover innate techniques in Jin-woo, keep it secret for now. Until he becomes at least a grade two sorcerer, maybe even one… keep it down about him. You should know about the attitude of higher ups…" Yaga spoke with wariness.

This even made Gojo stop enjoying the snack. He turned much more serious in seconds. "I know what you mean, old man. Their attitude towards me… I won't pull the young generation so that they are targeted as well."

"It's good that you understand. The boy being only a grade four sorcerer, while also being a part of some sacrificial ritual, forced the higher ups to agree, putting you as his teacher and a supervisor."

"They had absolutely no idea what they were doing, old man, haha."

Gojo laughed in his very heartfelt style. Yaga disliked this side of his student, but at the same time knew the wrongdoings of Jujutsu HQ, so he was very supportive of Gojo. Now that he became a teacher at Tokyo Jujutsu High, Yaga expected them to try and discredit the young teacher in any way, possibly even through his students.

"I hope you have a plan…" Yaga said as he was first to stand up from his place and leave the room. He entrusted everything to Satoru.

Gojo didn't say anything, he was fairly confident in his plan. Which by this time has already begun with him becoming the teacher. He was going to create a strong generation of young sorcerers that shared his ideals. With his first official student being Sung Jin-woo.

…

Shinjuku Station, Tokyo, Japan - 02:40 AM

Jin-woo was at that time engaged in a prolific battle against a giant serpent. He was in big trouble. By the time he realized, the curse was overpowering him in every aspect except speed. He was only able to dodge the incoming attacks utilizing his reflexes and speed. It was getting very tiresome.

His knife was unable to pierce the body of a curse, due to it being covered in large scales that were tougher than concrete. Not only that, but the curse was also very agile, its size didn't completely remove the snake's flexibility. It was just considerably slower than Jin-woo.

[Fatigue: 80]

The message popped up as an alarm for reaching dangerous levels of exhaustion. The system's this time only served as a distraction for Jin-woo, his eyes missed the incoming attack of a curse. The tail roughly smashed against his ribcage and threw him away, directly into the concrete walls of Shinjuku Station. *Crash*

The teenager spewed out the blood, which wasn't a good sign. The collision was hard, so much so that the wall had large cracks with rubble falling down on Jin-woo. His mind raced, as he thought, the situation reached its peak. 'So much… pain.' Some of his bones were broken. There was a taste of iron in his mouth. There was blood coming down on his eyes. He couldn't breathe and say a word either.

'I don't have good passive regeneration skills for now, so I'll use it… Status Recovery.'

[Reward #1: Status Recovery - Accepted]

As the bright light enveloped Jin-woo, the blood began to disappear as did all the exhaustion. He felt very light, as the strength returned.

[Fatigue: 0]

Jin-woo glared directly into the curses' eyes, which only got more aggressive. 'I'm only getting started…' He dashed forward, this time without the knife, he was going to use the pure physical strength he had. While the scales could protect the curse from slicing, it could not protect against shock.

He easily avoided the snake's attempt to try to catch him. The snake opened his mouth, thus obstructing the view, while Jin-woo moved away to the side and prepared his fist. Snake's eyes caught a glimpse of an approaching fist and attempted to dodge, although not completely. It still colited right under the eye.

The snake made a noise, hissing with pain, it tried to swallow Jin-woo, but that was also in avail. Jin-woo jumped on top of the snake and punched it on its head, disorienting the snake. It seemed like the snake's weak spot was its head. Although it had a scaled structure, it was much more vulnerable to attacks.

'It's still tough…' Jin-woo had to think more deeply about this matter. His strength was still not enough to defeat the curse with just punches, before he exhausts all this power, he should create a disadvantage for Curse that he can monopolize on.

As he held onto the scaly head of the snake it dragged him on the walls and floors. His hands were able to still hold on and not let go of the creature. Jin-woo brought out his knife once again and used it for a different purpose compared to the previous time.

Jin-woo grabbed on the outer shell of scales that protected the eyes and while looking directly into the eyes of the curse, he yelled out. "You won't like this!" His hands moved before the curse could do anything else. Jin-woo's knife sliced the eyes of a curse and purple blood spurted out of it. The serpent-like curse fell into anguish as the pain became unbearable.

'It's working!' Serpent was doing everything to just get him off, but its actions were so hasty and predictable that Jin-woo could easily avoid being smashed into another wall. He jumped off from the head, unnoticed, as it kept smashing its head against obstacles thinking he was still there.

The shrieking sounds it was making, the despair that was emitting from it, nervousness that was in the curses' remaining eye, which was not yet regenerating. Jin-woo liked the feeling of it. All of the emotions coming from a curse that he previously thought was stronger than himself…

"I can finish this."

…

[Alarm: You have slayed the Swamps Ruler Blue Venom-Fanged Kasaka]

[Alarm: You have Leveled Up!]

The notifications from the system followed as Jin-woo exorcized this curse as well. He leveled up by three, and now, after slaying all the wolves, his level reached the staggering level thirteen! And it was not the only reward he received by finishing this mission, another thing he received from the system was an item.

[Item: Kasaka's Venom Fang]

It was a dagger of sorts, with some effects. The first was the fact that compared to previous cursed knife, this had a serious damage factor. As an attack stat it had twenty-five, and along with it there was a debuff that Jin-woo could inflict on anybody that was cut by the dagger. There were two debuffs: Paralyze and Bleed.

Paralyze effect was self explanatory, it could stop a person from moving at a certain rate. While the bleed effect reduced an opponent's health by one percent every second the effect was active. This weapon was very good in a sense, but Jin-woo could only think about the weapons he would get in the future. So far this was a good addition, which Jin-woo stored in his inventory.

'I leveled up quite a bit, let's invest some of the points.'

____

[Name: Sung Jin-woo]

[Job: None]

[HP: 730]

[Fatigue: 19]

[Level: 13]

[Title: The Wolf Slayer]

[CEP: 174]

[Stats]

Strength: 36

Vitality: 21

Agility: 21

Intelligence: 17

Perception: 17

Remaining Points: 0

____

The main focus for Jin-woo was still Strength stat, which saw tremendous increase just this night alone. So did other stats except Intelligence and Perception, non the less, Jin-woo felt an increased amount of cursed energy flowing through his body almost artificially. His perception didn't have that drastic changes, but he definitely felt cursed presence better.

The Health Points almost doubled and the Cursed Energy Points tripled due to the increase. Jin-woo was getting stronger not just on the panel, but in reality as well, the confidence almost skyrocketed. He wanted to cry from all this, he was happy, he could finally be something he always wished to be.

'But it's already time to return to the school.'

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