Kisuke only returned a day later and everyone was back to their usual habits of refining their experience and basics.
"Welcome back~!" Yoruichi said as she separated from Kuroka and Koneko's simultaneous attacks and greeted Kisuke, "How did it go?"
"I finally got a better picture of the overall situation and made a goal according to it. However, I won't be revealing it for the time being since it's still bound to change and we might not have anything to do with it." Kisuke replied as he sat down on the bench with Medusa coming out with a tray of tea in her hands.
He then looked around and asked, "Where're our dear Goddesses and the children?"
Yoruichi sat down beside him and answered, "Aika's accompanying them on the surface. They're still enjoying the new atmosphere Pandemonium is giving them."
"Is that so?" Kisuke finalized the schedule he had in his head and gestured to everyone present to come closer, "I'll just tell them later, but let's discuss what we'll be doing this month."
With another look around, he took note that Kuroka, Koneko, Akeno, Irina, and especially Sona were more beaten up than usual and asked, "You've been doing this all night?"
Just their silence and Serafall's worried look already gave Kisuke the answer, 'I understand Akeno-san and Irina, but it has been a while since the others have become this impatient. Looks like the news about Issei being one of the strongest fighters on the other side rattled them quite a bit.'
Kisuke was absolutely correct, however, it wasn't just about Issei, but also those around him. They knew for sure that the people they left behind were not lagging behind Issei and they had a feeling that they were, who were experiencing a legitimate war, were already stronger than they are right now and they couldn't sit still knowing that.
Not that he couldn't understand them since they seem to have reached a plateau and couldn't improve as fast as before.
Kisuke let out an audible breath and said, "I know how you're feeling, but trust me, you're doing fine." But even after saying that, nothing had changed.
Since they needed to be convinced so that they would have the needed confidence for what they needed to do next, Kisuke thought for a bit before stating, "How about this? Let's compare Issei's progress to yours using RPG terms."
Grabbing their attention, Kisuke continued, "If we were to translate Issei's progress into RPG terms, then he's advancing normally. Leveling up, defeating bosses, acquiring skills and equipment."
"You girls, on the other hand, already maxed your levels before even reaching the first boss. However, due to you not yet defeating the boss, even if you have tons of skill points, you haven't advanced to a class change and couldn't acquire the skills and equipment needed to progress."
Stopping for a moment to drink his tea, Kisuke continued, "Well, that's a very rough analogy but you all should have understood my point."
Still skeptical, Sona fixed the position of her glasses and asked, "So we just need to 'defeat the first boss'? How do we do that?" But despite her tone, she couldn't mask the hopeful gleam in her eyes and it was the same with others as they waited for his answer.
Kisuke finished his tea and set aside the cup with a loud clunk, "That is what I want to discuss with you now. Within this month, your abilities should improve at least ten times, and that's just a conservative estimate."
But instead of Sona, the first one to doubt Kisuke's words was Serafall, "That's ridiculous! How can someone train and become ten times stronger within just a month! With my current strength, it took me centuries to reach this point! Don't even compare it to Issei-kun since he's using one of the Heavenly Dragons and once he reaches the power of a true Heavenly Dragon, it would take a lot of time and effort to improve any further!"
Kisuke nodded at her words, agreeing with it, "That's true. After he's reached a certain point, which is most likely Ddraig-san's prime, it would be harder for him to improve further. However, that's only an established common sense."
With a large grin, Kisuke added, "And you know what happens when you depend too much on common sense here, right?"
Pouting, Serafall answered, "...An unnecessarily huge headache."
Shrugging his shoulders, Kisuke carried on, "It's actually both easy and hard because it's just a fine line that you have to cross. All you need to do is to develop or discover an ability that would ignore the physical, magical, and spiritual laws of the world."
While the others still had no idea what Kisuke was talking about, Serafall understood a bit of it and finally agreed that '10 times' was indeed a conservative estimate. However, she was certain about one thing, "That's not a fine line. There's an enormous gap to achieve that. I know because I'm on the edge of that precipice."
Since Kisuke told them that they'd only need a month, developing a conceptual power never occurred in her mind since she believed that to be impossible.
Kisuke correctly guessed what she was thinking, but he understood her point of view. After all, if not for him being an expert in a certain subject and having special knowledge, he wouldn't have easily guessed the main reason why becoming like Sirzechs is 'easy'.
"I won't be going through specifics right now, but I can promise you that it's at the very least, doable. Basically, we will be cheating for you to achieve it with my help, but there shouldn't be any differences than if you were to achieve it on your own."
Kisuke then took out some small bottles that contained his usual candies and passed one to everyone except for Yoruichi and Medusa, "Take one candy every morning starting tomorrow. This is for the preparation of what you're about to go through."
"Of course, there's only a single me so we have to divide the schedule. Starting tomorrow, for a whole week, I will be helping Sera-tan and Sona-chan. Next week would be Kuroka and Koneko-chan."
"Next would be Aika, but she will only need three days. After that, the rest of the month would be allotted for Medusa-chan."
"Eh?", not expecting to be not included, Irina asked with an almost broken voice, "W-what about us?"
And just like her, Akeno was also very worried. They thought that they were included with those who haven't 'defeated the first boss', but it looks like that wasn't the case. They were already feeling useless, yet they would be left behind yet again.
To make it worse, Kisuke let out a long sigh and said, "To be honest, your situation is so complicated that I don't really know how I should help you both. However, I do have an idea of what you should do."
Kisuke then faced Yoruichi with a serious expression, "Yoruichi, I'd like you to watch over them closely during this month. With what I'm about to ask them to do, they are most likely going to die."
Editors:
28th00: Ah, the infamous “Death Training” of Kisuke is coming into FULL effect, huh? Sera-tan, you’re going to experience it personally this time! AND A DIRECT VERSION TOO!