CHP 29: Perfected Curse Mark...

~Jacob's Pov~

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"598!... Fuuuh~ ... 599!... 600! Hyup!" I counted with each exertion, the strain evident in my muscles as I pushed through the workout. didn't take long for me to collapse to the floor, and instantly there was a wave of relief washing over my muscles.

'I love my physiology...' That much was true, even without my stupid level of recovery time, I didn't build up nearly as much fatigue toxins compared to a human did, and soon, all the fatigue gradually subsided within me with each passing second...

It had been just over two weeks, nearly three, since I tasked my shadow clones with decoding and perfecting the seal we discovered.

Their progress seemed promising so far—

Knock! Knock!

"Come in!" I called out, already anticipating Ayata's entrance, "Hmm? Bad timing?" I signaled no, "You just came right after I was done, so it was great timing actually." I quickly headed for the shower since I didn't smell so well.

"Well, when you're done getting ready, you should come see this." She left as soon as she came. Still, I wonder what it was...

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"So, what is it you wanted to show me?", I asked, she motioned me to go to my clones, "We've managed to fix it up quite a bit, but... It's still imperfect." One of my clones added, another came beside me, "Yeah, we found out that the seal had a function of corrupting one's soul over excessive use, and that's the caveat we found recently... We can remove the function completely, but that would take us another week pull off."

"However~ We did manage to reverse some functions and even improve upon it using our own design, but before we get into that, we figured out the true purpose of the seal to begin with. Which, Ayata guessed right since day 1—Empowerment. It's using the user's chakra, and converting it into raw nature energy immediately; which we figured, but once it's used it would cause bodily mutation while corrupting the user's soul overtime leading them down to madness..." One of my other clone's finished.

"Through this process, we've realized how inefficient the conversion really was, it was honestly staggeringly horrendous, to the point where it would likely cause vast amounts of pain to the user while the conversion was even happening, but with our changes, the pain should be practically eliminated... Then, when the chakra is converted, the user should gain a great increase in power, in fact, if our conversion rate is correct... It should be about a 5 to 25-fold increase, give or take."

I widened my eyes at all this, a full 25 times increase on top of whatever abilities you use? Still...

"Yeah, seeing your expression; I'm sure you've picked up on the only downside of it by now; by gaining said increase, you would have to match the chakra consumption of it, which means..."

"I would use 5-25 times more chakra than I would usually expend..." I finished it for him, myself? Regardless, the pay off would be huge, and the cost isn't that bad either, the only thing one would really need is a massive amount of chakra to use it to its full capabilities.

"Alright guys, consider me extremely impressed." I gave them all a thumbs up for their good work so far. This all turned out to be more than amazing... Though, I still had one more question...

"About that increase in power, could someone explain why is the range of increase is that wide by any chance?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Well, they said that if the mark is activated, it would come likely in stages, they haven't figured that out completely, but they said it would definitely have three phases overall; the first, second and third would have a 5, 15 and finally the full 25 times increase respectively." Ayata answered.

"I see... Not bad, I won't disturb you guys any longer then, just notify me when you finally crack it." 

"Will do boss"

"Sure mate."

"Hai, Hai"

I waved them all off, the other issue I had was the massive headache I would be getting after this whole process was up...

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"There's just two weeks left until the chuunin exams come around, I'll train for this week and rest off on the other, how does that sound?" Naruto asked me.

"I think that sounds fine so far, but to be fair, you don't need to train anymore Naruto (Not for the chuunin exams at least), you're more than powerful enough, trust me on that. Still, if you wanna go through with it, I can teach you a martial art of mine that's pretty awesome in the meantime." I offered.

As soon as I did, I literally saw the sun itself graced me with its presence... Literally, "Really!? Of course I accept! We can even start now! Though, what's it called?"

I smiled, "It's called, Ssireum."

over the next week or so, me and Naruto worked on Ssireum, he was learning terrifyingly fast, if he had used his clones, he'd be a master at it, depending on how much he uses, not only that, I trained my self a bit more, being even more casual this time. Increasing my overall stats by around 50%., I would still continue but, I was slowing it down a bi, just to allow my stay here a bit longer...

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~Omni Pov~

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"Are you sure about this? Even though we managed to perfect the seal, that doesn't mean there couldn't potentially be drawbacks for it..." One of Jacob's clones warned him once again.

"I'm sure, I believe in myself after all." He smiled, signaling his other clone to draw the seal. The process took a few minutes, "Alright, I'm done. All you need to do is to flow chakra towards it, that should activate the mark." Jacob nodded, sitting in a meditative position...

"Alright, I'm starting now..." Jacob began infusing chakra onto the left side of his chest... 

As Jacob infused his chakra into the seal, a faint glow began to emanate from the markings, gradually intensifying in brilliance, while they grew around his body, almost resembling electrified veins. As the process continued, the air seemed charged with chakra, as the energy surged through the seal, responding to increase in chakra levels...

'Focus... Focus...' Jacob chanted slowly to himself.

The transformation was subtle at first, a subtle shift in his aura, but then the changes became more pronounced. His features seemed to sharpen, but barely; while the tattoo's stopped spreading, initially going from his chest, to the left side of both his face and arm.

*Rumble~*

The area began to tremble slightly before stopping as soon as it came; and slightly after that, Jacob slowly opened his eyes, a newfound strength and vitality coursing through his veins too. The mark pulsed with power, resonating with Jacob's own chakra, as well as the chakra in the air too...

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"I did it..." Jacob finally said, "This power... it's... incredible..." He felt the energy in his body multiply greatly. His senses even sharper than before. Appearance wise, he looked as if he had an edge to him. He was slightly more defined than before, but the change was practically unnoticeable to the naked eye...

The whole transformation took a few seconds at best, yet those seconds felt like minutes...

"It... It worked!!!!" One of the clones shouted.

"Hell yeah!!!!!!" Another shouted, excited that the seal actually worked. 

"Wait, do you feel anything strange, like a mental drain of any kind?" One of his other clone asked, but the original just shook his head, "No, I feel fine actually, more than fine. The only drain I feel are on my reserves, and that's palpable at best, I can hold this form forever without batting an eye..." Jacob responded. 

The clone nodded, "Good... So I guess, this marks the end of our existence?" Jacob looked at himself, and smiled saying; "Yeah, but, you'll always be apart of me.", the clone smiled, "I guess so, hurry and stop with the cringe talk, undo the seal before the others realize..." The clone mentioned, Jacob heeded his own advice...

He undid the transformation by stopping the supply of chakra that went towards it, and immediately prepped himself for the massive migraine he would get... 'Release!' He commanded in his mind.

As Jacob released the seal, a wave of agony surged through him, sharp and intense like a thousand needles piercing his mind. He gritted his teeth, trying to endure the searing pain without showing weakness...

"Urghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!" He felt a years worth of collective work, experience and knowledge all being cramped in within a second, unknown to him, both his nose and ears began to bleed profusely. If it wasn't for the capacity of his mind being enhanced, his brain would have melted...

After a few minutes, he stopped his screaming, laying on the floor weakened... His mind having absorbed all the information...

"F-Fuck..." He mumbled, he slowly got up, feeling his brain healing, smelling the iron and feeling the liquid from his body, he just willed his tendrils to clear the area of the blood...

"That, was a shit show..." He rubbed the back of his head.

[I can tell it was.]

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"Huh?"

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END