Who??

I'm under the distinct impression that I'm being treated like glass. It's been nearly a week of practicing and hanging out inside of the rebellion base. So far the only person who has kept up a consistent communication channel with me was Mika.

I shouldn't really blame other people for that as the lack of people to talk to is partially my fault. I've never been the type of person to approach random people and try to open a dialogue.

I also did not really recognize a lot of characters here so they're probably not that important. Even if they were mobs I was feeling kind of slighted with them not talking to me.

I could maybe give them some slack if they fell under the spell of my Coat as that was its entire purpose but I had it toggled off most times. It was also not like people were completely ignoring me either I clearly caught their attention. 

Shared whispers between people as they looked at me. Certain people staring at me hungrily with a sort of desperation in their eyes. Even if they looked like they wanted to approach me no one did. 

I can see the hesitation in their eyes and the want. It was only the order of someone else that was having everyone avoid me. I can only assume that knowledge of my ability has spread throughout the compound. 

All of that would be fine with me but Mei has been a bit of a hassle. She was the only person that I knew well enough to ask to spar. The thing is she's been avoiding that sparring for the most part. Even when I was able to badger her to fight me she was clearly holding back the entire time. 

Thus the notion that I'm being treated like spun glass. I was happy about my importance being appreciated but the whispers and stairs were getting to me. 

The fact that the only person that I feel comfortable talking to is a literal child is also irritating. Well her mother is reasonable as well but she's rather busy most times. She also blows air up my ass the entire time we talk so it's not entirely comfortable. 

I was just going to have to deal with it as I was rather important. It was not like I had to deal with these stares if I did not want to anyway. 

I may have kept my coat toggled off for the most part but I could use it whenever I wished. While the entirety of my Enhancement pool was not used on the coat it did get its fair share. That meant the Coat had evolved from Kurko presence levels to something broken.

If someone was in the same room as me I was almost completely invisible. It was like being an elephant in the room that is noticed but the knowledge of said elephant was being suppressed the entire time. If a person did not have direct eyeline on me they would slowly forget about my presence. 

The knowledge of who I was and everything that I was capable of was still in their head. It's just that they would have more important thoughts overwhelming that knowledge. 

You can imagine why I left the coat toggled off for the most part. I was not exactly the most social person but in the strange and unusual world I wanted some sort of camaraderie. Or in more simpler words I was feeling fucking lonely. 

Other than my coat of concealment I did make some other items. A sweatband that increased the rate in which I increased my stats. That particular one has done me wonders in this week. 

Twenty points in STR, Thirty points in DEX, and ten points in CON. When I made my little exploiter I also received a good number of wisdom points. Couple that with the natural growth of making wise decisions I was able to grind it up to 20. 

Sadly there weren't any gains in luck, charisma, or intelligence. 

At the rate I was gaining these stat points, I would soon reach 50 and get the associated perks in most of my physical stats.

Then of course I had the last item that I've been empowering. A pair of glasses that increased my skill growth. I figured out that it was not just my physical stats that desperately needed grinding. 

I knew item empowerment was something that could do quite a lot of things. I likened it to power manipulation and that was fairly accurate. I could quite literally do anything I wanted with that ability. It was just a matter of pushing those energies into the items that I wanted. 

I had to thank The Gamer for how easy it is to control the skill in comparison to what Dauntless was capable of. As far as I was aware Dauntless could only pick out the powers assigned to the objects subconsciously. 

So he could make boots that made him massively faster or he could make a shield to produce force fields. But he was not capable of producing the items that I was. 

Once I knew that I was capable of making that skill enhancement item. I concentrated all of my energy on that particular one. Not because I was so excited to practice the Kaleidoscope but because it allowed me to level Item Empowerment faster. 

Which in turn would allow me to enhance the skill empowered item. An Ouroboros that was only benefitting me in the long run. 

It's such a shame that this particular item was rather harder to power up with my energy pool. I was only at a 25% boost in skill gains after spending a large amount of my energy on it. 

I suppose it made sense that the more abstract a power was the harder it would be to upgrade it. At least I was able to reach level 15 on Item Empowerment. 

On another note I was slowly learning how to use ninjutsu. Oddly enough my friendship with Mika was probably the leading role in that aspect. She wanted my help in training so I asked her to explain what she was doing and how she was doing it. 

I framed it in a way that she would assume I was looking for faults in her methods. I felt rather strange manipulating the young child but this knowledge was rather important. I also did not want others around me to know that I knew nothing about chakra.

It would be baffling and astounding if they found out all of my abilities were not fueled by chakra. Still, it felt pretty bad manipulating Mika so I did try my best to teach her. With my glasses I learned things at a rather accelerated pace after all and The Gamer already came with accelerated learning.

Sadly Mika did not have a vast arsenal of ninjutsu for me to learn. She knew the basic and essential jutsu's like substitution and transformation but she did not have much else. She did know a variety of boil release Jutsu but that was not something I could learn. 

Actually, could I learn bloodline specific jutsu? I knew the bloodline jutsus were a combination of the basic elements. The only reason people could not use these jutsus was that combining those elements in the same manner is incredibly difficult. 

It was akin to telling your right eye to look right and your left eye to look left at the same time. So you can imagine the absolute horror of combining three different elements into a jutsu. 

With The Gamer I might actually be able to learn these jutsus but I didn't try because I thought I couldn't. I suppose it is another experiment that I could work with later.

I contemplated tricking Mika to teach me more jutsus again but I was already feeling pretty bad. I did not want to take advantage of her innocent naivety. 

It was not like boil release was actually that impressive anyway. If she had access to Wood release then I would certainly trick her no matter the cost but it was just boil release. 

While I had no plans on joining Konoha any longer I should raid them to get Wood releases. Maybe try to capture Guren as Crystal release would work incredibly well with the gem magic I already know. 

Bah, plans for the future. For now, I should concentrate on something more realistic. I was grinding out substitution for that very purpose. 

This jutsu might be something that quite literally every single Genin knows but they did not take away from its importance. Being able to teleport away from potentially fatal wounds would always be valuable.

I just had to ensure that I was capable of using it at the drop of a dime. So when I was not grinding my physical stats or working on more important skills I worked on the substitution jutsu.

I could not really work on it inside my room so I needed to be in a large training area this compound provided. That fucking bartender did not introduce me to this part but that was understandable as he thought I was just another refugee.

I had to learn of this large area from Mika and she had to vet me so I could enter. As I started to motion through the hand signs to replace myself once more I heard something.

"Well. you look busy kid. Figured someone like you was well past the basics." Mei let out as she approached me with a friendly smile on her face. 

We certainly did not get off on the best foot but once she was in a more familiar environment she eased up a lot. She was still a prick who wouldn't help me really push myself but she was friendly enough.

"Never really got to learn the basics if I'm going to be honest. All I ever was taught was my Clan stuff." I explained simply with a shrug of my shoulder. It was more lies but when you started lying you almost certainly had to continue lying. 

"Well, I guess I know why I never heard about any of you. If you can't pull off a good substitution you might as well call yourself cannon fodder." Mei let out with a small shrug of her own.

I gave her a flat look and she only looked back at me with an annoying smile on her face.

"Is there any particular reason you are disturbing my practice today Mei-san?" I questioned out flatly with an annoyed look on my face. 

The annoying smile on her face faded and she grew a serious look instead. 

"You up for another Resurrection Wonder kid?" She asked with a completely serious look on her face. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She may have been masquerading her question with concern but I have a feeling it was not much of a question. 

I brought up my skill window to check when my pool would refresh. I had another 20 minutes or so before my pool recovered but I should cover travel time.

"Yeah, I'm almost completely recovered by this point. Are we going to practice on those clan members I sealed or do you have anyone else in mind? I will warn you if they've been dead for more than a day it's unlikely that I'll be able to help." I explained with a small frown on my face. Mei let out a sigh and started leaving the room gesturing for me to follow her.

I felt like a dog being commanded but I did follow her. 

"I wish you could start working on my clan members but an opportunity came up and we should probably take advantage of it." She let out sourly as we continued walking down hallways to areas I had never seen before.

"That opportunity being what?" I let out with a roll of my eyes. There was no need to leave me in the dark through all of this.

"Ameyuri Ringo died from a disease so we stand a real shot at getting her on our side if you can revive her," Mei explained as we continued walking.

I would question who the fuck that is but I have a feeling I was going to find out pretty soon. 

---------------

Yeah, I know she died before the third shinobi war but we need more red heads. Freaky shark girl fits the theme. Let's blame the timeline issues on the multiverse.

I was tempted to remove the knowledge of what Dauntless was capable of from his head to fit the flaw but figured it would be okay to keep it. Like the knowledge being important in the use of said power so he kept that knowledge.