The days of training continued for nearly a month.
During that month, Kūkaku taught Duan Mu what it meant to keep one's word. When she said he could not leave the Great Kūkaku Training Hall, she truly did not let him leave, forcing him to go an entire month without seeing the sun.
Only when his training results barely satisfied Kūkaku, combined with Duan Mu's claim that he needed to earn money to live after not working for a month, was he finally allowed to leave the Great Kūkaku Training Hall. As for Iwao... he was still underground in that lightless place, struggling against those "specially made arenas."
Still, the gains from that month's training had been extremely substantial.
Name: Duan Mu Race: Human Level: Stage Six Physique: Beginner (243/500) Spiritual Pressure: Intermediate (2840/10000) Hakuda: Beginner (982/1000) Shunpo: Beginner (843/1000) Zanjutsu: Beginner (248/1000) Zanpakuto: Not activated (activation conditions unknown) Kidō: Hadō: Beginner Hadō "Numbers 1–29": Quantity (4) (↓ Expand to view details) Intermediate Hadō "Numbers 30–59": Quantity (4) (↓ Expand to view details) Bakudo: Beginner Bakudo "Numbers 1–29": Quantity (5) (↓ Expand to view details) Intermediate Bakudo "Numbers 30–59": Quantity (3) (↓ Expand to view details) Advanced Bakudo "Numbers 60–89": Quantity (1) (↓ Expand to view details) Special Techniques: Intermediate Incantation Destruction Abandonment (28/10000) Healing Kidō: Beginner (64/1000) Post-chanting: Beginner (354/1000) Current Experience: 15000 ↓ Expand to view the Favorability Interface.
Over the course of that month, Duan Mu's fastest progress had undoubtedly been in his Spiritual Pressure. From less than one hundred proficiency points, it had soared to nearly three thousand.
Although his level had not changed, his strength had improved considerably.
If Duan Mu's Spiritual Pressure had barely reached the standard of a low-ranking officer a month ago, then its current strength had surpassed that of most low-ranking officers and was infinitely close to that of a weaker High-ranking Officer.
However, this was only Duan Mu's own estimate. He was actually uncertain how things would go in a real fight.
After all, the officers of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads were not like Daimaru, who possessed Spiritual Pressure but had no idea how to use it. Anyone who could be promoted to officer, except for those with severe weaknesses in one area, possessed a certain level of mastery in Zanpakuto, Kido, Hakuda, and Shunpo—even low-ranking officers.
More importantly, whether High-ranking Officers or low-ranking officers, being able to use Shikai was the most basic requirement. The varied abilities of Zanpakuto could overcome differences in strength in many situations.
This could be seen to some extent from the system's level evaluations.
Even though Duan Mu's Spiritual Pressure had become infinitely close to that of a High-ranking Officer, his level remained at "Stage Six," equivalent to that of a low-ranking officer.
For Duan Mu, however, advancing to "Stage Five," equivalent to a High-ranking Officer, would not be difficult. He only needed to invest the remaining fifteen thousand experience points.
During that month, Kūkaku had supervised him constantly. To avoid exposing the system's existence, Duan Mu had not used any experience points.
It was not that he did not trust Kūkaku. Rather, the system was his greatest trump card. No matter how much he trusted someone, he would never let anyone notice it—not even suspect its existence.
Thus, apart from initially raising four intermediate Kidō to the "Intermediate" level, Duan Mu had invested only a little over five hundred experience points into Incantation Destruction Abandonment, where its use would not reveal anything unusual.
Now that Shiba Kūkaku was no longer supervising his progress every day, Duan Mu naturally had no such concerns.
If he wished, he could completely spend over seven thousand experience points to raise his Spiritual Pressure in one go to the "Advanced" level, equivalent to the weakest Lieutenant Captain. Although he would merely possess the empty shell of Spiritual Pressure without the corresponding techniques, he would still qualify to fight a High-ranking Officer.
Of course...
That applied only to ordinary High-ranking Officers. Among them were many monsters who had "failed to advance" for various reasons, yet whose combat strength was no weaker than that of Lieutenant Captains.
Of course, that did not mean raising Spiritual Pressure was useless.
Kūkaku had taught Duan Mu many advanced Kidō, but he had not activated them. After activating the only advanced Bakudo, Bakudo #61: Rikujōkōrō, he had discovered that his Spiritual Pressure could only barely meet the minimum requirement for casting it and could not be used in combat at all.
Even if he raised Rikujōkōrō to Intermediate right now, the result would be the same, because his Spiritual Pressure could not provide what high-numbered Kidō required.
Based on Duan Mu's observations over the past few years in District 1 of the West Rukongai...
A Stage Six (low-ranking officer) Shinigami possessed decent Spiritual Pressure, could release their Zanpakuto's Shikai, and could use intermediate Kidō below Number Sixty.
A Stage Five (High-ranking Officer) Shinigami possessed very high Spiritual Pressure, could release their Zanpakuto's Shikai, and could use advanced Kidō below Number Seventy—or had mastered physical techniques, Hakuda, and swordsmanship, while being proficient in Shunpo.
From this, it was clear that to release advanced Kidō with ease, he needed at least the Spiritual Pressure of a High-ranking Officer.
Thus, Duan Mu's plan was...
He would raise his Spiritual Pressure only to the level of a High-ranking Officer rather than immediately maxing it out at Advanced. He would save a small portion of his experience points and invest the rest into Shunpo, Hakuda, and intermediate-to-advanced Kidō. That way, his experience points would have a greater effect.
After all, experience points did not merely strengthen him. They also acted like a "mentor," granting Duan Mu more knowledge and allowing him to continue training independently even without experience points, rather than having his strength stagnate the moment he ran out.
This was a benefit he could never obtain by investing all his experience points into Spiritual Pressure. There were only a few methods of training Spiritual Pressure, and Duan Mu could not use most of them.
Even if he pursued Spiritual Pressure alone, he would gain little training knowledge and would instead delay the progress of his other combat techniques.
Most importantly...
There was only one Kūkaku in Rukongai. Until he found another way to obtain large amounts of experience points, he would return to his former state, where he could gain only a few thousand or even a few hundred experience points in an entire year.
"Ah, Big Sis Kūkaku's favorability has stopped increasing again."
If only my good big brother Iwao could visit the later-numbered districts a few more times.
Brother Iwao, since you call yourself the "Crimson Bullet of West Rukongai," "The Person People Have Most Wanted to Become the Big Brother of West Rukongai for Fourteen Years," and "The Person in West Rukongai Who Hates Shinigami the Most"...
How can you just sit by while those "Great Villains" from District 80 of West Rukongai claim to be the Strongest of West Rukongai?
However, Duan Mu was only thinking about it.
After what had just happened, if he ran over to encourage Iwao now, Kūkaku would definitely slap him to death.
Returning to the main topic, Duan Mu had already planned out how to distribute his experience points during that month's training. Thus, after leaving the Shiba Clan, he began allocating them.
His Spiritual Pressure naturally needed to increase, but not by too much. Duan Mu invested only 4160 experience points into Spiritual Pressure, raising its proficiency to exactly 7000—roughly equivalent to the middle tier of High-ranking Officers.
He invested over three thousand experience points into Hakuda and Shunpo, bringing both techniques to the same Intermediate level (1500/10000).
He then selected Kidō #63: Raikōhō from the unactivated Kidō and activated it, immediately raising it to Intermediate. He also raised Kidō #61: Rikujōkōrō at the same time.
"My binding and offensive options are sufficient now, but my only defensive option is still Bakudo #8: Seki. Seki is suited for use with Hakuda in close combat, so raising it to Intermediate would be worthwhile."
"But it isn't suitable for every situation. If the enemy possesses a wide-area attack, I'll also need a wide-area defensive technique."
With that in mind, Duan Mu carefully selected from among the Kidō and ultimately chose Bakudo #39: Enzansen.
Unlike Seki, which created a palm-sized "Spiritual Power shield" on the back of the hand, Enzansen could form a circular defensive shield in front of the user, blocking the entire caster behind the "Spiritual Power shield." It was more suited for defending against wide-area attacks.
Finally, Duan Mu raised the newly learned Post-chanting to Intermediate.
Actually, compared to Urahada, Post-chanting was more practical. Although Duan Mu's Urahada had already reached Intermediate, only Kidō below Number Ten could unleash its full power while using Urahada.
For an intermediate Kidō like Kakka Hō to unleash its full power without an incantation, it had to reach at least Advanced. In simple terms, Incantation Destruction Abandonment needed to be a full level higher than the Kidō being used.
Post-chanting was different. When used at the same level, it could unleash the full power of a Kidō.
After the allocation was complete, his experience points dropped directly from 15000 to 2000. Duan Mu planned to save the final two thousand experience points for now and use them when he encountered a bottleneck in his own training.
After investing a massive thirteen thousand experience points, Duan Mu's level finally reached Stage Five, equivalent to that of a High-ranking Officer!
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