1 Month

It was 12th of May, 2005.

A month passed since Shuichi became an "orthodox" sorcerer. Not a lot happened during this time. It was mostly quiet.

The initial uproar that had happened because of the sudden jump in curse appearance subsided after the recruitment of the majority of curse users in Japan.

The gigantic increase in sorcerers that could be deployed had stabilized the overall situation.

Needless to say, the Jujutsu community still suffered from an overall lack of manpower. All the sorcerers had to take up several dozens of missions every week to keep the situation under control.

However, such a situation was bound to pass eventually.

The jujutsu council had also gave out several laws and new functions to the existing community; mainly pertaining to the training period of newly recruited sorcerers before they could be deployed, a change in the standard protocol guidelines, the benefits that Jujutsu High could give them, as well as the standard protocol by which sorcerers go up in their rankings.

Such a huge change was unprecedented, taking as to how conservative the jujutsu high council in their ways.

One had to know, the jujutsu society was almost as old as Japan itself, and the functions and ways that were integrated into it for thousands of years had not been challenged for centuries.

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that such a huge change in the jujutsu society had not taken place since the last 700 years!

It made every sorcerer, who was the least bit knowledgeable about the viewpoints of the higher ups, wonder what called for such a radical change; even if the new laws did not change the overall foundation of the society.

Rumor was it that the Special Grade sorcerer, Tsukumo Yuki had pressured the higher ups into releasing such laws. Another rumor even included the Ainu jujutsu society and the 3 sacred treasures it holds into the picture.

As for how true these rumors were; one could not say.

For the entire month, Shuichi did very little.

He had mainly stayed holed up in his workshop, experimenting and making all kinds of weapons and talismans with his technique. It would not be wrong to say that he had become addicted to making new tools and stronger artefacts.

It was to the point that his [Crafting] skill had reached the proficiency level of 1200 without him even spending a single attribute point on it. And it would be very accurate to say that he made a lot of cursed tools.

Within this time, he had not been slacking off on his other skills at all. His cursed energy manipulation had finally reached 3500, and cursed energy reinforcement reached 3100; making him gain two more pieces of enlightenment.

Black Flash had also increased in proficiency to 64.

Naturally that is. It was at that point that Shuichi decided to invest a couple of points into it. After he spent 2 stat points into it, the skill reached 104 proficiency.

And well... it could be said that more skills were unlocked...

Status.

{[Status]} [Skill Tree] [Inventory]

[Name: Zenin Shuichi

Level: 21

Class: Jujutsu Sorcerer

Cursed Technique: Cursed Heart; Hard to Kill; Hundred Armament Refining

Innate Skills: Cursed Technique Creation; Corrupted Mind

Skill Points: 138]

Shuichi had leveled up 4 times in the month. He could have leveled up some more, but he passively sucked in the cursed energy from the atmosphere.

In Tokyo, there was no stronger curse he could kill; only an army of weaker ones.

But hey, quantity had to do for quality. He simply went on a massacre for a few days to get the experience.

I will need to do something about this problem. If it goes on like this, I won't be able to level up very well. I guess I should travel Japan for a bit. Shuichi mused as he worked on a new project in his workshop.

Skill tree.

With a thought, the skill tree was opened up before him.

[Status] {[Skill Tree]} [Inventory]

[Ability Tree]

[Normal Tree]

[Ability Tree:

Cursed Energy Manipulation(3544)

-Cursed Energy Reinforcement(3277)

--Spiritual Protection(0)

--Domain Amplification(0)

-Black Flash(104)

-Reverse Cursed Technique(0)

Barrier Mastery(1000)

-Rule Making(120)]

[Normal Tree:

Cooking(600)

Training(1220)

CQC(2400)

Crafting(1200)]

Just from looking at the skill tree, it was quiet clear how much Shuichi had grown in terms of strength and skill.

Although a large part of the ability tree had to be unlocked still, like Spiritual Protection, Domain Amplification and RCT; a new category had been added to the ability tree, which was Barrier Mastery.

Interestingly enough, the skill had previously appeared in the normal tree of the skill section.

After being quickly practised to 2000 proficiency due to Shuichi's experimentation with his workshop, there was an option to upgrade the skill to be an ability.

For 20 skill points...

Ignoring the price, Shuichi had upgraded the skill; and lo and behold, it had indeed been upgraded to an entirely new level.

Things like curtains, simple domains, and new shadow style were of no difficulty to him. In fact, he could even cast curtains without the need to chant, without any loss in efficiency or power.

After being upgraded, the skill had been reset to 0 proficiency, but this time something new had been added.

Another skill box that extended from the barrier mastery. Which was indeed, Rule Making.

It was a skill that allowed for Shuichi to make rules within a specific enclosed space, bounded by a 'veil'. In laymen terms, making rules within a barrier.

It was increasingly visible to Shuichi just how useful and powerful such an ability could be. Sadly, it was not as flexible as his Hundred Armament Refining and did not allow for spontaneous writing of 'rules'.

The rules needed to be 'written' as the barrier was being erected.

Although, small scale rules pertaining to the barrier itself could still be changed, added or subtracted.

It was also worth mentioning that the rules had a very obvious limit as to what they could and could not enforce. They could not simply make someone die as long as they got within the barrier. They could, however, give buffs and debuffs, prevent people from falling over, accelerate healing, turn small injuries into fatal ones, completely isolate a single person from a group of individuals, and so on and so forth.

There was also the fact that the rules applied both ways, though that could be circumvented by applying a cursed energy signature recognition rule.

And finally, someone of substantial strength could easily ignore the rules that had been made, depending on what type of rule it was, how it operates, the persons strength, their cursed energy output and a variety of other factors.

In the end, it turned out not so overpowered, but Shuichi felt that by increasing the proficiency, all the weaknesses would be fixed.

It went without saying that his grasp on barrier related skills, namely curtain and simple domains was mostly unmatched by the present day sorcerers.

His cursed tool, The Record of Tenjin* as he had named his necklace, had underwent a mild upgrade as well.

It had now became capable of transmitting information directly to his brain; alongside a transcendental increase in analysis power, analysis range and cursed energy processing, it would elevate his powers to another level.

His cursed tools were also progressing smoothly, gaining cursed energy as they were simply kept anywhere. A Grade 4 tool he had refined a month prior had already been upgraded to a Grade 3. That was considering the cursed energy disparity in Tokyo.

Given enough time, they would all coalesce into such a large magnitude of curse it would dwarf the energy reserves of a special grade sorcerer.

Obviously, any cursed tool he supplied to Jujutsu High did not have such a property.

Speaking of his deal with Jujutsu High, he had been consistently supplying them with cursed tools, with having supplied them with a grade 2 artefact, a dagger, just 5 days prior.

All in all, he had made a total of 6 cursed tools in this month for the highschool. For which he only got paid more and more.

As of right now, his bank account had an impressive number of 123,000,000 yen. Which was about 7.9 million US dollars.

A comfortable sum if you were to ask him.

At the moment, he was sitting comfortably in his workshop, which had undergone some... minor changes to say the least.

Shuichi's gaze swept past the entire room, which now looked a lot larger than it had been before.

The light walls and the organised tables which held an assortment of weapons on them painted a picture of a weapon depot. The objects ranged from small metal daggers, katanas, batons, flintlock rifles, pistols, staffs, bells, and so on and so forth.

All of them ranged from grade 3 to grade 1 cursed objects, with a couple of them even being special grade cursed tools without a cursed technique.

All of them were kept to slowly gather cursed energy. He couldn't keep them in his inventory, as that would completely cut off all contacts with the outside world, which meant no opportunity to gather cursed energy. The only cursed tools in his inventory were the Special Grade ones, which were 5 in number. Coupled with his necklace, he had 6 cursed tools of the special grade on him at all times.

The ceiling had various lamps which burned with a bright light, illuminating the entire room brightly. Various thin walls were erected, dividing the entire 'room' into various sections. Coupled with the extremely clean environment, it made the entire workshop seem like a futuristic weapon creation hub.

This is the feel I was going for... Nodding to himself, Shuichi focused ahead, looking at a small orb looking object.

The spherical object was the of a size slightly larger than a basketball. It had a bright blue hue that suffused out into the surroundings with a transparent purple body.

This'll work. Shuichi nodded as he looked at the newest addition to his ever growing multi-purpose workshop.

It was another Special Grade object, the third that would be added to the workshop.

"I'll call you..." Shuichi spoke as he took out a piece of 'blessed' bamboo paper and a brush permanently stained with ink.

He hurriedly wrote some words onto the paper and plastered it onto the spherical object erected atop a pedestal.

Eye of the Small Man**, the paper read.

Snap!

With a snap of his fingers, the paper went ablaze, engulfing the orb in a torrent of Yellow and orange.

With a quick mental command, the necklace on his neck glowed; and with it, the entire workshop hummed. The fire was put out in an instant, suppressed by a mental command from Shuichi.

The naming of a cursed tool was as much of a tedious process as the making of one. It was a delicate balance and the symbolism was crucial.

One could not just name any cursed tool with any name. In jujutsu practices, the name of a cursed tool had special meaning and constituted about 30% of the tool's total potency.

But as expected of jujutsu practices, it was hardly easy. The fire used in the naming of cursed tools, although normal fire, could burn through the cursed tool in seconds. Obviously, there were various methods to name a cursed tool; including but not limited to, proclamation to the Heavens, spiritual naming by the dead spirit of the creator and naming by an entire society of people to ascend the tool into a higher category.

Naming by fire seemed to be the most practical to Shuichi; seeing as how he could suppress the fire almost instantly and the fact that it hardly took any effort on his part.

As of right now, the entire workshop works like a hivemind. Every single cursed tool and defensive mechanism communes with each other, exchanging any information about changes in the entire workshop.

Any change is notified and measures are taken to remedy it. It's an elaborate system, mimicking the structure of a gigantic brain, with each cursed tool acting as a 'neuron'. And at the center of it is the necklace, which grants remote access to the workshop. Analyzing his work, Shuichi nodded with a content smile.

Shaking out of his thoughts, he looked towards the newest special grade tool that would be kept in the workshop.

The Eye of the Small Man.

It was a cursed artefact with roughly the same concept as his Record of Tenjin. It analyzed living biological processes.

Any living creatures that came into direct physical contact with it could be perfectly analyzed to gather perfect information and aid in his studies.

However, that was not the intended use of the item...

The real use of the item lied in it's ability to change curses. For the lack of a better word, transmute could be used to describe it.

The cursed artefact processed cursed energy and curses in general to power, create, or channel other forms of curses. Not only that, it came with it's own inner storage system, which could hold multiple curses inside and harvest them for cursed energy.

Meaning, it could attract cursed energy from all over the city to it's location. And not only the city, it could also affect the surrounding cities due to a vacuum of cursed energy.

Meaning, that the cursed tools would only accelerate in growing stronger.

"And now... I have transformed the workshop into a proper brain." Shuichi said to himself, slowly turning the pedestal under the Eye of the Small Man.

As the pedestal turned, a hum went through the workshop as every cursed tool inside reverberated with a strange force.

Hummm

Resonance!

With the Eye of the Small Man acting as the proper Central Nervous System and the Necklce working as the Supreme Commander of the workshop, any and all changes in the workshop and the environmental cursed energy density would be immediately notified to him!

"With this, I can start to run my tests on those guys..." Shuichi mused as he pinched his chin.

"But they still haven't recovered completely.." He tilted his head in thought. Then, a sudden flash of inspiration crossed his mind.

Thinking of a particular brunette in the first year of jujutsu high, who also happened to pass for a healer, his lips stretched into a grin.

I guess it's finally time to learn RCT.

~~~

Record of Tenjin: Tenjin is a Japanese Deity, revered as the god of scholarship, learning, intelligence and Wisdom. Tenjin is actually just the deification of Sugawara no Michizane (845–903), the famous scholar, poet and politician of the Heian period and the ancestor of the Gojo Clan. Ten (天) means sky or heaven, and jin (神) means god or deity. The original meaning of Tenjin, sky deity, is almost the same as that of Raijin (a god of thunder).

Due to his status as a god of learning and intelligence, the necklace which gathers intelligence has been named after him.

Eye of the Small Man: The word 'Small Man' refers to the god Sukunahikona, (Japanese: "Small Man of Renown"), in Japanese mythology, and is a dwarf deity who assisted Ōkuninushi in building the world and formulating protections against disease and wild animals. A god of healing and of brewing sake (rice wine), Sukunahikona is associated particularly with hot springs.

Seeing as how he is revered as the god of medicine and healing, something that functions mainly to analyze biological beings and functions as a brain has been named after him.

~~~

A/N: This chapter was supposed to be 5000 words long. Which it was and would have been... if webnovel had not decided to make 15 draft chapters vanish into thin air.

Each chapter was at least 4000 words long and I had written a lot into the plot.

Seeing this, I lost all motivation for a week. Anyway, instead of a great 5000 word chapters, you get this 2400 word chapter which doesn't have much content in comparison.

I'll try to make some more chapters but the quality may not be as consistent.

Cheers~