1016 AD, 4th Month of 12, Aokigahara Forest, Japan
It’s been 2 weeks since Uehara had conducted his final assessment. He had taken Chizuki with him to his home island, Aokigahara. After Chizuki tried to say she was fine, he forced her into a coma so that she can fully rest and recover.
Right now, he was feasting on the blood of a jaguar he had caught. With bone spikes holding it in place, he drank from the freshly sliced neck. Although he grimaced at the taste, he still drank on.
[Tastes like watered-down wine now.]
He threw away the oversized beast far into the forest for some other animal to scavenge.
[Time to check on my little student now.]
He flew over to the small house he had built and went into the room where he had laid down Chizuki. He placed his hand on her and channeled in his chakra.
[Seems like after a few adjustments, she’s having a more positive reaction than before.]
He shifted into his dragon form with short horns protruding from his forehead and lied down next to Chizuki, channeling some of his chakra into her as well. He then proceeded to allocate a small percentage of his brain to maintain just enough awareness that nothing can approach him without his knowledge within a 10km radius. With that set, he retreated into his mindscape where he was met with the shadow of man who looked like an adult version of himself with some minor changes. He had long black hair with two fringes of white hair coming down his forehead. The man had a massive great-sword on his back. He was wearing a black long-sleeve and black pants with black shinobi sandals. He had donned a red haori that stretched all the way to his knees that had the kanji for ‘Overlord’ written in black on the back.
“Are you ready?”
Uehara adopted a stance, his eyes turning into a glistening red as a thin black stream of chakra surrounded him. He looked at the man in front of him and spoke.
“Yes, father.”
Volkarin, the Overlord of Chaos and the god who unlocked the fabled 13th Gate, making countless universes shiver at his name.
-Volkarin-FPP-
“You’re doing well but don’t rush. You’re still in your developing stage. Having opened two of your paths already at your age is impressive enough.”
Uehara was sitting in a lotus position and circulating his chakra.
“I know father but…I’m afraid of waiting that long. I want to take advantage of this time while your original is still recovering to gain as much power as possible.”
“Then do what I did. Supplement the lack of power with techniques and skill. You’re a surin. Although we’re a race of strong sturdy demons, our infancy lasts the longest. There’s very little we can do to increase our strength during that stage. That’s why I took up scripting. You’ll need to learn a skill as well to pass the time.”
Uehara couldn’t help but grunt.
“I…understand father, and…thanks for being here.”
Volkarin walked towards Uehara and patted his shoulder.
“Don’t worry boy. I’m sure one day you’ll become strong enough to the point that you can stand toe to toe with me.”
“I’ll make sure to become strong to the point that the universes will tremble at my name like they feared yours.”
“That’s my boy. But don’t just end there. Always…”
“...strive for strength.”
“That’s right. Now enough chitchat. Back to sparring.”
Volkarin never thought that he would awaken again. Although he’s not the ‘real’ Volkarin, simply a soul remnant spawned from his blood, he can tell his original self is alive but doesn’t know in which universe. His original is unconcious and from the weak link he felt, it would take at least a few hundred years for the original to regain consciousness.
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He had noticed he was in the mindscape of a boy. Through his eyes, he saw the boy training a little red-haired girl who looked no older than eight.
He was also surprised to find out that this boy was a dragon that had his bloodline, making him a vampiric surin. For all intents and purposes, this boy who has his blood could be considered his son.
Faced with that possibility, he took it upon himself to teach him. Thus, he revealed himself to the boy by dragging him into his mindscape. Although the boy tried to resist, he instantly dominated him and after a while, revealed himself to be his father.
This resulted in Volkarin teaching the boy from scratch several techniques and amongst other things for the next two years.
During the weeks Chizuki was still recovering, Uehara was receiving knowledge about surins from his father.
“Let me tell you about our race. Do you know the difference between how dragons and yokai form? Dragons form from large concentrations of chakra and yokai form from large concentrations of emotions. Dragons are fairly simple, the larger the energy they form from, the higher their initial strength. Yokai are the same as well. In terms of strength, yokai have three different levels of progression. They begin as chakra beasts, which evolve into normal yokai and then can transcend that and break into the realm of tailed-beasts. Dragons are divided into two types. Snake ancestral and lizard ancestral dragons. There’s snakes that ascended into dragons and there’s also lizards that ascended into dragons The bigger or longer the dragon is, the stronger it is. Tailed-beasts contain their energy in their tails while dragons contain their energy in their bodies. Are you with me so far?”
“Yes father.”
“Good. Now we come to surins. Our race needs both a huge cluster of emotions AND a huge amount of energy in order to form. This does not mean that we are stronger than dragons or tailed-beasts. It just means we’re rarer. Very, very rare. For us surins, our strength is in our horns. You’re too young so your horns from your surin side haven’t grown yet. The more pairs of horns we surins have, the stronger we are. You still remember our level of progression right? Infancy lasts a century, adolescence lasts a millennium…”
“Yes father.”
“Good. Now each race has their advantages and disadvantages. First and foremost, all three races can gain strength by just absorbing chakra. By this method alone, dragons are faster, then yokai and then surins. But that’s not our method, right?”
Uehara smiled.
“Yes father. That is not our chosen method.”
“Good, because relying on this method will not allow you to make it past the 9th Gate. Our method of gaining strength is different from yokai and dragons. I’ll remind you again since I fear you may have forgotten my teachings when you played with your pets. You see, every race has 8 limiters placed in their bodies. Those are your chakra gates but universally, we call them paths. You’ve already opened two of them. Once you’ve opened the other six, you will officially enter the 1st Gate. Are you with me so far?”
“I think so. Once you open your body’s eight limiters, you enter the 1st Gate, right? Then what about the 2nd?”
“I was getting there. Once you open all of your eight limiters, your body will start to adjust itself and regain its potential. As you regain potential, your eight limiters will come into play, meaning you’ll once again have to break them.”
Uehara frowned.
“But won’t I get weak then?”
“No. Your body will maintain its current level of strength. It’s like climbing a tree. You grab a branch, stay a while, and then grab another, and another and keep on climbing up. That’s how you advance your gates.”
“I see. What about dragons and yokai?”
“They train their bodies in order to be able to house more energy.”
“That seems…awfully convenient.”
Volkarin flicked his head.
“No it isn’t boy. They’re largely affected by the type and quality of energy they absorb. For instance, the quality of chakra on this low-level planet is an immeasurable amount of times weaker than the chakra on Planet Surin. A one-tailed beast from my planet could easily kill a nine-tailed beast from this planet. Same as a dragon. A hundred metre long from Surin could do the same to a thousand metre long from here.”
Uehara rubbed the red mark on his forehead.
“I see. But won’t we get affected by the energy in the air as well father?”
“That would be the case if not for the fact that we can produce our own chakra.”
“Produce our own? But how? I haven’t even produced my own chakra yet.”
“It’s normal for you to not produce your own chakra yet. That will only happen after your hundredth birthday. Right now you’re subconsciously using the nature chakra in the air, although yours seems to be more potent. Right now, the chakra that you can truly call yours is the dragon chakra within you but be careful of how you use it. Since you’re an infant, you don’t have much and your regeneration rate is very low.”
“I understand father.”
“Good. So don’t worry about being weaker. Once your growth stage arrives, the chakra you produce as a surin will naturally elevate the quality of your dragon chakra as well.”
“Okay so to summarise, I’ll get quality chakra while dragons and yokai who’ve lived for thousands of years on this planet won’t even qualified to be cannon fodder on Surin? Got it.”
“GAHAHAHAHA! THAT’S MY BOY!”
Volkarin wiped a tear from his eye.
“Karina would kill you for insulting her race.”
“Karina?”
“Oh, I never told you? I’m a host and she’s my resident 12-tailed fox. Because of the weakness of dragons and yokai, they come to surins and willingly seal themselves inside them. Since we naturally produce high quality chakra, we are the perfect hosts of them. By the way, you’re going to need to become a host too. Your body isn’t stable due to your vampiric properties so you’ll need your own chakra bundle of annoyance to hold you together.”
Uehara stared at Volkarin with a blank expression before he got up.
“I was thinking the same thing father. Any advice?”
“It doesn’t matter what type of tailed-yokai you choose. Just don’t make the mistake of choosing a woman. That species is…annoying.”
“Is…it really that bad father?”
“I’ve lived for 38 million years son. I’ve contemplated ripping her out of me atleast every century.”
“But…wouldn’t that kill you father?”
“Yes it would.”
“Then what about your pursuit for power?”
“There were times when peace and quiet was more appealing son.”