A massive pressure of water surged toward him.
Uesugi Tetsu opened his eyes once again inside the dilapidated thatched hut. He leaned by the door and listened for a while. After confirming there was no movement, he quietly pushed the door open.
The creak of the wooden door was swallowed by the torrential rain after traveling only three or four meters. Uesugi Tetsu poked his head out and, after confirming that the gassho-style houses on either side truly weren't hanging upside down, breathed a sigh of relief.
That absurdly powerful Oni Warrior really could move...
Only then did he take the Walker Token out of his storage slot and hang it from his waist.
After turning around and closing the door, Uesugi Tetsu narrowed his eyes. He found that his vision was limited to around twenty or thirty meters by the pervasive rain mist.
In reality, when he had been wearing the Hundred-Eyed Demon's Eye in his Brahma form, he could see people's faces clearly even from two or three hundred meters away.
How was he supposed to hide from monsters while scavenging?
This was bad.
Edo Castle was a four-star map. The little monsters wandering around here probably weren't even just one-star...
As he thought this, Uesugi Tetsu stepped into the sticky mud. Holding his breath and concentrating, he looked around cautiously. He hadn't gone far before he spotted a black shadow lying beside the road.
What the hell was that? A corpse?
Uesugi Tetsu swallowed, tightened his grip on the kitchen knife, and crept forward, already prepared to open his eyes and find himself back at school.
Closer. Even closer.
When he was about ten meters away, Uesugi Tetsu, who had been observing it for a long while, stopped bothering to test it. He smashed through the curtain of rain and charged forward, gripping the kitchen knife as he leaped and brought it down.
Strike first!
The sensation of the blade sinking into flesh was unmistakably clear, and the round object rolling away proved that the slash had succeeded.
Yet no kill notification appeared before his eyes.
"A real corpse?"
Uesugi Tetsu picked up the severed head and examined it for two seconds before setting it down and pressing his palms together.
Then he began carefully searching the corpse.
[You obtained Incomplete Ki-ai Technique (Common).] [Learn it?]
As Uesugi Tetsu withdrew his hand, he also pulled out a slippery book soaked through with blood and rain.
He flipped through it briefly, only to find that all the pages had stuck together and couldn't be pried apart. Even the sections that could be opened had illegible writing.
His idea of learning it through self-study was immediately abandoned. Uesugi Tetsu stopped hesitating and directly chose to learn it.
[You have learned Incomplete Ki-ai Technique.] [Incomplete Ki-ai Technique (Beginner 0/100)] [Effect: Gathers the scattered ki within the physical body and unites it in one place.] [--Created by a certain Sword Saint during the Heian period as a prerequisite for cultivating a difficult breathing method. It is easy to begin learning, but its effects are shallow.]
As soon as he finished reading the description, memories related to the Ki-ai Technique surged into Uesugi Tetsu's mind.
Then he felt a concentrated yet undispersed breath rise within his chest, and his limbs became noticeably stronger.
[Physique: 10→11]
Huh? Wasn't its effect supposed to be shallow?
As Uesugi Tetsu lowered his head, he saw the Laughing Brahma mask reflected in the water and suddenly understood.
That "shallow effect" was probably in reference to ordinary people. But he was now a bona fide demon, and a Brahma famed for its strength at that!
Could the ki of a Brahma possibly be comparable to that of an ordinary person?
After gaining something from searching a corpse by the roadside, Uesugi Tetsu's steps became more powerful as well.
Unfortunately, the good times didn't last.
The second time he saw a black shadow by the roadside, Uesugi Tetsu tried to use the same trick. The shadow knocked his kitchen knife away with a single slash, then cut off his head with another.
[You died.]
Uesugi Tetsu opened his eyes with bared teeth, clutching his neck as he frantically sucked in icy breaths.
The pain this time was far worse than before, and the sensation of the slash had been all over the place. The little monster's swordsmanship probably wasn't properly trained yet.
He remembered seeing [Wandering Samurai] above the little monster's head at the end, followed by a single half-star, and angrily shouted:
"Your sword path is crooked!"
He had practiced the sword for decades, yet had only gained one star over his juvenile Laughing Brahma form. Had all those decades of sword practice gone straight into a dog's belly?
After saying that, Uesugi Tetsu rolled around on the bed in pain twice more.
Several minutes later, the pain in his neck gradually faded. Uesugi Tetsu opened the Laughing Brahma's upgrade progress bar with a dark expression.
["Laughing Brahma (Juvenile Form)" upgrading: 10%]
Tsk.
How had nearly eight hours passed and it was only at ten percent? Wouldn't a full upgrade take more than eighty hours—in other words, three days, almost four?
Too slow. It was far too slow!
That meant he would have to be casually hacked to death by roadside monsters like this seven or eight more times!
Just thinking about it made Uesugi Tetsu's neck start hurting.
This wouldn't do. Aside from sitting around and waiting for the Laughing Brahma to level up, he had to think of another way to become stronger.
As he thought, Uesugi Tetsu shifted his attention to the new skill he had obtained not long ago: "Ki-ai Technique."
Although the ki within his body was far less than when he had transformed into the Laughing Brahma, it was still an immense force for him in this state.
By his estimate, it had probably increased his Physique attribute by about 0.5.
Uesugi Tetsu closed his eyes and carefully gathered the ki inside his body. Once he felt all of it converge into a single mass, he suddenly opened his mouth:
"Ha!"
Accompanied by a loud shout, Uesugi Tetsu briefly felt his entire body receive an intense stimulation. His limbs became incredibly nimble and powerful.
He looked at the Ki-ai Technique's proficiency: Beginner (1/100).
This was probably how the Ki-ai Technique was trained.
But if that was the case, wouldn't he be unable to use class time to practice the Ki-ai Technique...?
Wait.
Uesugi Tetsu remembered that Tokugawa Ririko was the captain of the school's kendo club. If he wanted to find time and a place to practice the Ki-ai Technique like this, the kendo club's dojo was undoubtedly the best choice.
That way, he could learn kendo and practice the Ki-ai Technique at the same time. Wouldn't that kill two birds with one stone?
It was decided. He would join the kendo club right away.
"Dad, I'm heading out."
After saying goodbye with practiced familiarity, Uesugi Tetsu put the Nanjō doll and the Walker Token into his schoolbag together.
Just as he was about to enter the school, Uesugi Tetsu spotted a familiar figure at the gate.
"Ririko?"
The words slipped out instinctively, but Uesugi Tetsu realized that the two of them didn't seem to be that close, so he corrected himself: "Tokugawa."
"Just call me Ririko."
Leaning by the school gate, Tokugawa Ririko had a cold expression. After seeing him, she sighed with emotion.
"Not bad. You survived another day."
The girl, the brand-new Bamboo Sword pendant swaying before her neck once again, walked beside him. Under the curious glances occasionally cast their way by the surrounding students, Ririko was the first to break the silence:
"About last night, thank you."
Ririko gave him a slight bow. "If you need anything, Uesugi-kun, I'll do everything I can to satisfy you."
Everything she could, huh.
Uesugi Tetsu wasn't coy. He spoke directly: "I want to join the kendo club and learn kendo. I want to start today."
"Okay."
Tokugawa Ririko didn't care that the request was actually quite unreasonable. She immediately called the instructor of the kendo club.
After a minute of back-and-forth, the girl hung up and nodded at Uesugi Tetsu. "Come to the kendo club at noon. I'll wait for you at the entrance."
Even Uesugi Tetsu was stunned by such outrageous efficiency. He opened his mouth, and only after a while did he continue:
"About the Friendship Club..."
As though a keyword had been triggered, Tokugawa Ririko immediately fixed her gaze on him.
Before you continue