Nio groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. Everything was hurting, he didn't feel really good right now. He slowly rose to his knees and tried to look around. The keyword being tried.
It was quite dark, the only source of light was a few meters up, and as it was nighttime, it was not really illuminating anything, really.
Sigh
"What was that, anyway?"
The black panther had been way too strong.
[Answer! The host's opponent was a Dark Panther of the Skin Tempering Stage.]
"Bullshit! Why was it so much stronger than me then? The snake wasn't this strong, and it was only a single stage behind."
[The Panther's muscles were much stronger than yours and the snake's originally, taking into account that it reached the muscle tempering stage, it is normal to be much stronger than both of you.]
"Ah! I see, it had a better base strength than me, therefore once it refined its muscles, they became miles stronger than mine. Considering that I had to reinforce myself to deal with a snake, it's no surprise that I lost so badly."
However, this posed a massive problem. The panther seemed to regard the cave entrances as its territory, it would be hard to manage its escapades with it guarding his entry points.
A person with a weaker will might have given up here and decided to grow their strength in the safe space of Squad 9. However, Nio wasn't about to give up, he was ready to overcome this challenge, to become stronger, to force himself to become stronger.
But how?
The panther's strength far surpassed his, so how could he deal with it? It was actually quite simple, refining what he had that the panther didn't. His chakra and cursed energy as well as his system.
He believed that it was finally time to do what every transmigrator with chakra is supposed to do. Learn the rasengan.
As for cursed energy, Nio decided to delve into the topics of barrier techniques like the veils and stuff like that. They would be pretty useful.
As for his system, he was planning to boost his physique with something on its store. There were various choices, but he was inclined toward two things that had already caught his eye.
[Itadori Yuji's Physique] and [Full Concentration Breathing].
One was from Jujutsu Kaisen and the other was from Demon Slayer, and both would allow him to boost his strength considerably. Itadori's physique was naturally powerful, and as well as being a cursed painting womb, there were other advantages. As for the full-concentration breathing, it would be quite the boost in strength that he would be able to stack on top of his chakra and cursed energy reinforcement.
The best part was the fact that both would become much stronger once he started cultivating, either by refining his muscles or organs, like his lungs, his strength would increase immensely.
"System, how many credits do I have exactly?"
[You possess at the moment 401 credits]
Credits were able to be gained through various means. Mostly quests given by the system or by performing random tasks that he had no idea about.
In the span of over two years, he had barely earned three hundred credits, this was the first time he had gotten them above four hundred.
"What happened?"
[Defeated foes are recorded and evaluated to then convert into points for the Host.]
"Oh. So I receive credits by beating up someone or something?"
[...]
[Yes]
"Neat. Okay, System, show me the prices."
[
Name: Itadori Yuji's Physique
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen
Description: Allows the user to gain a better physique. Giving a boost of 100% to the current PHY stat, 90% increase to the current END stat, and 50% boost to the current SPE stat. It also gives the user an increase of 25% when increasing one of the following stats: PHY, END, SPE. Besides that, it gives the capability of turning cursed energy into blood.
Cost: 450 credits
]
[
Name: Full Concentration Breathing
Anime: Demon Slayer
Description: It uses breathing exercises to muster superhuman strength into the body. It requires great concentration and passively gives the user access to the skill [Demon Slayer's Breathing Technique], which is a weaker and more manageable version of this skill.
Cost: 600 credits
]
They were a little costly, but it was not impossible. After all, they were investments. Once he had his hands on one, getting the other would be much simpler. Specially now that he knew that he could earn credits by defeating enemies, his outings had become much more important.
"Anyway, I should probably get going, I still have to find my way through the cave system before tomorrow's wake-up call."
However, it was really dark at this moment, mostly because he was in a cave. He couldn't see a palm in front of his eyes, the "light" from the system's panel was not real, as the panel was a projection inside his own mind, as the system had explained to him.
So, in order to find his way inside the cave system, he had already devised a strategy. In fact, he had already used it, although not in the scenario he was aiming for when he created the technique.
He created several chakra strings around his body scattering around the area, illuminating with a soft yet weak glow. The chakra strings were meant to work similarly as the anthena of certain insects served to warn them of danger, in this case, they would be a new sensory input for him, allowing him to know the shape of the cave and if there were any obstacles.
He proceeded with caution, after all, not only had this method proved to be flawed previously against the panther, but also he needed to conserve as much mental power as he could in order to not mess up his calculations or his sense of space. In order to find his way towards Squad 9's home, he needed to constantly update his position on his mental map in parallel with his destination. Making sure that he was going the right way, he walked forward.
Every time there was a turn, he would softly remind himself to turn again in order to not go sideways. He advanced cautiously, forgoing any type of mental interruption, be it from the outside or from himself with pointless thoughts, he was in a state of total concentration.
Nio didn't know, but this was one of the few moments that his true talent came to shine, not his martial talent or his future talent in the manipulation of various power systems. His true talent lay in an almost perfect control of his mental faculties, allowing him to forcibly turn off important thoughts and ignore pointless inputs from his senses.
That was his true talent.
He continued to advance unperturbed. His advance was going steady, and in his calculations he should be close to his destination, about five minutes away, if there were no sudden turns.
His worries were unfounded, as he suddenly noticed that the ground on which he was standing was tilting upwards. He was rising, it meant that he was getting close to the surface, and considering his calculations, he shouldn't be far away from his home, at worst, he was around the perimeter. Nothing that good sneaking wouldn't resolve.
Finally, he reached the end. It was a dead end. He was met with a ceiling in a narrow path he had decided to climb/crawl in. Not giving up, he decided to check if he was too far away from the surface. Placing his hand on the ceiling, he sent a chakra string upwards, snaking in the middle of the earth.
And a sudden realization hit Nio, he was only about three meters below the surface. He reached for the inside of his coat, where another tool he had packed was with him. It was a shovel, a small one, the ones that were normally used by the maids in their free times for gardening, he had stolen one.
Reinforcing it with chakra and cursed energy in order to not collapse on itself due to his own physical strength, Nio started digging. It did not take that long for him to finally find himself, or his head, on the surface. Looking around, he surveyed the surroundings.
He was on the playground of his home, where they normally played or had class. The cave system had led him towards the most convenient place!
How truly convenient.
Getting out of the hole, he rushed to cover it with whatever he had, be it leaves or branches and small amounts of dirt. He should be attentive to make sure no one discovers it accidentally.
With the amount of brainwashing some of the kids had suffered, they were as much as enemies as the guards or instructors themselves.
He needed to be careful, but for now, this night had been not only a victory but also a loss.
"I need to bandage myself, it will be a pain to go to class with these injuries."