The Effects of Skill Points and a Plan

Shuichi silently summoned his Status Bar in his mind, then added one point to his first skill.

With the sound of a skill refreshing, Physical Talent Enhancement reached level one. A warm current flowed through his body, and Shuichi felt as though he were being bathed in gentle sunlight.

Before long, the warm current gradually faded. Shuichi clenched his fist and could clearly feel his entire body brimming with strength.

If someone had been watching him closely, they would have noticed that Shuichi's breathing had become much steadier, a healthy flush had appeared on his face, and his hair seemed glossier, as if it had been touched by sunlight.

"Phew..." Shuichi softly let out a breath, sincerely thanking Heaven for giving him a Cheat when he had transmigrated. "Now, let's test the effects."

Following the same running pace as that morning, Shuichi began jogging at a steady speed. "One lap, two laps, three laps..." When he finally reached the same level of fatigue he had felt at the end of the morning, he discovered in surprise that he had run more than twice as many laps.

"So that's what it means by containing Yang Release? My body's recovery ability has improved too." Shuichi was delighted. The effect of adding just one point was even stronger than he had imagined, and his future suddenly seemed bright.

"Next, it's time for the other skill." Shuichi had already made detailed plans and preparations to evaluate the System's skill-point allocation.

He immediately slipped into a narrow alley between the houses along the street and wandered around. When he found a relatively wide passage between two buildings, he stopped and took out the two small balls he had bought previously.

"Now it's Mental Energy and Reaction Speed. Let's see how effective they are." With that thought, Shuichi immediately focused his attention.

After estimating the approximate delay before the ball would bounce back toward him, he briefly closed his eyes and hurled one of the balls at the ground with all his strength. The little ball struck the ground at high speed, then hit the wall and flew rapidly toward Shuichi.

Shuichi quickly opened his eyes after releasing the ball, doing his best to see its trajectory clearly. His body immediately reacted, dodging the incoming ball.

This was a little game Shuichi had come up with to train his reaction ability and part of his physical coordination. In his original idea, it should have been played by two people—one throwing and one dodging—somewhat similar to squash from his previous life, preferably in a closed room.

He had originally planned to use highly elastic rubber balls. Those would bounce back faster after hitting the wall and would be much harder to predict, but unfortunately, he had not found any yet.

Although ordinary toy balls were not as effective, they were enough to give Shuichi a general understanding of his Reaction Speed.

"System, add one point to the second skill." Shuichi called up the familiar interface in his mind again and added one point to the second skill, Mental Energy Enhancement.

This time, the change came from his mind. Shuichi felt all five of his senses become sharper. The mental exhaustion from his earlier test was immediately soothed, and it became much easier to concentrate than before.

The doubling of his Mental Energy had other effects as well, such as stronger Chakra control and perhaps even an improvement to his soul. He already had a rough plan for those aspects and would conduct more detailed tests the next time he added points to Mental Energy.

After upgrading the second skill, Shuichi resumed throwing the little ball. This time, the first thing he noticed was a certain improvement in his Dynamic Vision. The ball's trajectory had become much clearer.

As for Reaction Speed, the change did not seem particularly significant. However, after repeatedly throwing the ball, he noticed improved consistency and found it easier to perform at his absolute reaction limit.

While the iron was hot, Shuichi directly added one point to the third skill as well. This time, the feedback to his Reaction Speed was extremely obvious, almost like suddenly switching a video to 0.75x speed in his previous life.

According to the skill description, his learning ability should also have improved substantially. He planned to test it properly when he got home that night.

When he continued the ball-bouncing test, Shuichi found the feeling incredibly satisfying. Not only did the ball seem much slower in his eyes, but his brain could also process more information in the same amount of time.

In future ninja battles, this could completely make up for his lack of combat experience while greatly increasing the chance of making the best choice in fierce fighting.

Winter evenings always arrived early, and Shuichi set off for home. He was very satisfied with today's tests, but he did not intend to immediately spend his remaining point.

The System's description had made it very clear: the effects of these skill points multiplied his original base qualities after excluding the System.

That remaining point should have gone to the ultimate skill, Flash. However, considering its long cooldown in the early stages and its uses, Shuichi realized that keeping one skill point unspent until the skill was maxed out would better help him resolve crises.

For example, if he were surrounded by a large number of enemies over a wide area in the future, Flash would become far less effective. But adding the point to Body Energy or Mental Energy could temporarily increase his Chakra reserves and catch his enemies off guard.

If he encountered a top-tier expert with overwhelming individual strength, or another crisis arose, he could also instantly add the point to Flash and turn the situation around.

Shuichi had also considered some finer details. The increase in Reaction Speed from the third skill could indeed immediately improve his combat strength.

However, reaction speed needed to work perfectly with the body's muscle memory to achieve its greatest effect. If his reactions became too fast for his body to keep up, then points invested in the third skill would not show much value in the short term.

After simulating the effects and consequences of various skill-point allocation plans, Shuichi settled on the general direction for future upgrades: he would alternate points between the first and second skills, since his mind was currently far stronger than his body due to soul fusion.

He would add one point to the third skill for every two points added to the first and second skills. If special circumstances arose, such as suddenly obtaining the Flying Thunder God Technique in the future, then he could prioritize the third skill when he needed to make major adjustments to his combat system.

After settling the arrangements for his Cheat, Shuichi went home and read for a while, gaining a rough sense of the changes to his thinking ability.

Before going to sleep that night, Shuichi reread a piece of paper on which he had summarized the future plot developments of Hokage and some important intelligence. Then he tore it into many tiny scraps, planning to discard them in different places over several trips.

Starting tomorrow, Shuichi would begin addressing his financial difficulties. He also set himself various daily training tasks, including running, stretching and flexibility exercises, reaction training, and familiarizing himself with hand seals.

Thinking of the powerful Cheat he now possessed and the clearly visible path toward becoming strong, Shuichi smiled faintly and slowly drifted into sleep.

The moonlight seemed especially bright that night, shining upon the boy's delicate face with a hazy sort of beauty.