'It seems like that true clone earned the trust of Murakumo… still, to think that such a being exists while hiding in the shadow of this world, it makes me wonder who else is hiding…' Wondered Bakorio as he paused his death and soul training and observed the outside of his room…
'No matter what, he's going to be a good addition to our forces, but his story also opened many possibilities for the future…' Bakorio's vision suddenly crossed a huge distance before it landed on a kid covered in fire and fighting for his life against a pack of Giant wolves…
'Reckless as always…' Thought Bakorio silently as he observed the kid controlling flames with such an unimaginable proficiency as he fought the much stronger beasts…
'Are these brothers really related to those demons? But how? Why would they be found near the land of demons alone?' Countless thoughts flashed through Bakorio's head but in the end, he shook his head and returned to his courtyard to focus on his training, he didn't have that much time to waste…
….
One week later, the true clones started to officially train under Murakumo's tutelage and Bakorio instantly received a notification of the completion of his quest and that he can claim the rewards at any time.
Meanwhile, Murakumo simply gave a simple order "Show me all you can do against Raiko"
'He wants to test my swordsmanship? Well, I'm also intrigued to see how I fare against the only student of such a monster' Thought Bakorio calmly before he took out a sword and faced Raiko but Murakumo suddenly threw two wooden swords at them and said
"You will be using these to spare… the loser will be the one that gets his sword destroyed first"
Bakorio's eyes narrowed slightly as he caught the wooden sword while Raiko seemed completely relaxed as if he was used to these kinds of things…
'Is he serious? We can't even channel our chakra into these swords less we destroy them ourselves… In this case, the sword is more like a burden since we need to protect it rather than using it as a tool to help us spare… What's this old man planning?' Bakorio couldn't help but stare doubtfully at the demon old man, but the latter simply rubbed his beard silently and didn't say anything.
Meanwhile, Raiko got into a simple swords stance and didn't cover his sword in any chakra before he said "Get ready, I won't go easy on you just because you are a new student"
'Is this guy an idiot?' Wondered Bakorio, but Murakumo suddenly gave the signal for the fight to start and Raiko instantly disappeared and reappeared in front of Bakorio with a slash aimed at his neck
'He's fast, but not fast enough' thought Bakorio as he easily anticipated the attack with his future sight and dodged right in time, although the wooden sword grazed his long hair and it actually cut it!
"Hmm?" Bakorio's eyes narrowed slightly as he couldn't comprehend what just happened, he was sure that Raiko didn't coat his sword in chakra since he was using his three tomoe Sharingan, yet somehow the latter was able to cut his hair with his blunt wooden sword, and from the looks of it, the same would have happened to his sword if he blocked with it…
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'How did he do this?' Wondered Bakorio, but Raiko simply smiled and said "Not bad, you dodged this one, try dodging my next attack… Kenjutsu: Shadow Slash!"
Bakorio's Sharingans were pushed to the limit in hope of trying to catch anything, and they eventually did as he felt a weird energy escape from Raiko's sword as he slashed it down and transformed into an invisible horizontal slash that created a deadly cross attack!
'Is this… What I came searching for' Bakorio suddenly closed his eyes to the surprise of Raiko as the main body accepted the reward of his advancement quest
[Congratulation host, Your level 100 Swordsmanship has successfully advanced into Sword Intent level 1]
Bakorio's mind was flooded with a huge amount of information, but it took him less than an instant to process all of it as he opened his eyes with a weird sharp glint in them and slashed his sword against Raiko's attack!
The result was clear… He lost, and half of his sword was sent flying into the air before it was nailed to the ground beside him. However, Bakorio had a wide grin on his face unlike Raiko was shocked as he stared at his chipped sword and spoke "Y-You, You actually made a breakthrough during our fight? How's this possible, Unlocking sword intent shouldn't be this easy!'
Even Murakumo was surprised by this turn of events, but Bakorio simply turned to him and said "This is what you wanted to teach me with this duel right?"
Murakumo calmly nodded and Yoshino suddenly asked curiously "Why are you guys shocked? Didn't brother Bakorio lose?"
Murakumo stared at Bakorio silently before he slowly shook his head and responded "No, I'm starting to doubt my own knowledge, he clearly just unlocked this ability, yet he doesn't have any talent for wielding the sword… what a weird guy... It took me centuries to unlock it..."
After coming to terms with the absurdity of what just happened, Bakorio and Yoshino started to officially train with Murakumo and Raiko while the real body slowly read the description of the mastery he just unlocked…
[Sword intent mastery level 1: Only the true masters that reached the peak of sword arts and fought countless battles could unlock such a mastery. The host gains the ability to manipulate their willpower and transform it into sword energy that can be used to attack and enhance the damage of their sword attacks by 25%]
'Another ability that relies on the will huh? first, it was the true fighter mastery, and now this… Now that I think about it, my level with that mastery has already reached 20 which means that I can increase my strength, speed, and defense by 200%... How amazing, This feeling of growing stronger with no limits… It's so refreshing… '
Then, Bakorio checked his system quests and checked if he got any rewards from leveling his true fighting mastery and he was delighted that it appeared similar to his previous masteries!
[Quest True Fighting 1: Reach level 10 in your true Fighting mastery. Reward: 30000 points, One talent-enhancing ticket]
Bakorio's eyes instantly lit up and he almost started laughing loudly as he accepted those rewards with a wide grin and clicked on the description of the talent-enhancing ticket!
[Talent-enhancing ticket x 1: Can enhance any one of the host's talents by one grade. Item will disappear upon consumption]
"This is a gift sent by the heavens!" muttered Bakorio before he directly used the ticket to enhance his only Grandmaster-level talent… His Body!
"This is…" Just as Bakorio used the ticket, a formless energy covered his body and he couldn't analyze it no matter what Dojutsu or senses he used, however, its effects were beyond miraculous as he could sense every single cell of his body going through a unique transformation like small butterflies breaking from their cocoons and just as this was happening, His perfect body that was trained to the extreme suddenly started to deflate to the point that he turned into a muscular skeleton!
This was an extremely painful process that if not for his pain resistance skill, he didn't know if he could withstand this level of torture… However, when it ended, he didn't care at all about his appearance as he simply stared at his new talent that was shining with a golden light in his system's panel!
[Body – SUPREME]