You Leveled Up, Spicy!

"Jashin-sama's Raising Mini-game reminds you: Through your unremitting efforts, the Jashin Cult's reputation has increased by 6,436 points!"

"You leveled up, spicy!"

"Your soul strength and mental power have greatly increased!"

Simu looked at the message that had popped up before him and lightly adjusted his glasses. If it had not reminded him on its own, he might have forgotten this system even existed.

But...

He had finally reached Level 2!

Although Simu's expression did not change much, his body still involuntarily reacted with delight.

Specifically...

The Blood Pool within the Shrine began bubbling away.

The cultist guarding the Shrine hurriedly ran out to report, "This is terrible! Lord Jashin is so happy he's bubbling!"

Simu: ...

A certain evil god: What the hell does that have to do with me?!

To be honest, Simu had not known his inner feelings would manifest in such a form.

No matter what, the Jashin Cult's actions this time had indeed caused a huge stir.

After all, Sakamoto Trading Company was the largest trading company in the entire Land of Rivers. It had countless ties to the Land of Rivers' influential figures, and its sphere of influence extended into several neighboring countries.

Yet such a powerful trading company had been slaughtered overnight.

And by some organization called the Jashin Cult, no less.

Though this Jashin Cult had some reputation in the Land of Rivers, it had only ever been at the level of having heard of it. No one had expected that once it made a move, it would be...

So bloody and brutal.

It was said that they had even piled all the corpses from Sakamoto Trading Company into a mountain of bodies and offered them as sacrifices to their so-called Jashin.

It could be said that the Jashin Cult had become famous overnight because of its intensely religious style in this incident, drawing the attention of many people.

That was why the Jashin Cult's reputation had surged by more than six thousand points.

Though he did not know how those reputation points were calculated, Simu was undoubtedly very satisfied with such gains.

After leveling up, Simu's system panel also underwent an update.

[Jashin-sama's Raising Game]

[Host]: A Blood Pool named Kamizuki Simu

[Level]: 2 (Reputation must reach 10,000 for the next level)

Note: The host's mental power will increase as its level rises.

[Jashin Reputation]: 7207

[Ability 1]:

[Womb of the Primordial Creator]

[Gene Bank]: Ordinary Human Gene, Leafcutter Mantis Gene, Giant Centipede Gene, Giant Man-eating Spider.

[Genes Currently Being Analyzed]: Jashin Gene (analysis progress 0.91%), Water Release Ninja (88.7%)

[Producible Races]: Weihe: Centipede, Koukaku: Spider, Rinkaku: Mantis, Koukaku: Ant-Man, Human Clone, Raven, Black Beetle.

[Ability 2]:

[Blessing of Jashin]: Your body has received Jashin's blessing. Before Jashin falls, you will possess an Immortal Body.

[Description]: I will create a world with Jashin-sama!

After leveling up, Simu could very clearly feel that his soul and mental power had been enormously strengthened.

This was most apparent in the research progress of the two genes, [Jashin Gene] and [Water Release Ninja].

Back when he was Level 1, no matter how much mental power Simu invested into researching [Jashin Gene], the progress bar would not budge at all.

Yet just a few days after leveling up, it had shot straight to 0.91%. And this was not even the end. At this rate, it was highly possible that it would surge to around 5% in one go over the coming period.

As for [Water Release Ninja], there was even less need to mention it. Its progress could be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

Simu had almost completely studied Kikuchi Miura's bodily genes.

Of course, the reason Simu had named this gene Water Release Ninja was certainly not because that was all he sought.

After all, Kikuchi Miura was merely a Chunin, at most possessing the strength of a Special Jonin. He simply could not satisfy Simu's requirements.

Next, he would inevitably study and analyze more Water Release Ninjas.

Just like this time, he had secretly had the Ravens and Black Beetles devour all the ninjas from Sakamoto Trading Company and Yugakure, then transport them back to his main body.

Though they were all Chunin, Simu classified these ninjas according to their strength.

For instance, the ninjas under Sakamoto were basically rogue ninjas. Compared to those who came from proper ninja villages, they were somewhat weaker, so they were classified as Rogue Chunin level.

As for Yugakure's Chunin, they were classified as Small Village Chunin level.

Beyond that was the Large Village Chunin level that Simu had reserved for the Five Great Ninja Villages.

Only after that came ranks such as Special Jonin and ordinary Jonin.

Most of the research materials Simu currently possessed were Chunin level, primarily Water Release and Earth Release. He had one each for Lightning Release and Fire Release, but not a single Wind Release Ninja.

In order to better study the nature of ninjas, Simu created three new analysis tasks in the system.

[Earth Release Ninja], [Fire Release Ninja], and [Lightning Release Ninja].

With Simu's current mental power and so many materials, setting Lightning Release and Fire Release aside for now, Water Release and Earth Release should achieve breakthroughs very soon.

Besides that, there was another line of research that concerned Simu even more.

Research into new types of Kagune.

Before leaving Shuiyu Village, Simu had Black Beetles devour and take away Sakamoto's corpse, the shed remains left behind by Shiraishi Mori, and a tube of blood drawn from Shiraishi Mori.

Clearly, during that battle, the Kagune on both Shiraishi Mori and Sakamoto had mutated to varying degrees.

What Simu needed to do now was identify the mutated genes by analyzing their tissues.

Then he would replicate and integrate useful genes into new Kagune, creating stronger and more versatile Kagune.

Thinking of this, Simu raised his hand and looked at it.

It was time to modify this body as well.

As the Spokesperson of Jashin, retaining such a normal body was simply far too abnormal.

"Ah! We're finally back at headquarters!"

Hidan stretched hard, and there was rare excitement in his voice.

But what excited him was not that they had returned to headquarters. It was that he could finally rest.

He simply wanted to rest. As for nonsense like headquarters being his home, that would absolutely never come out of Mr. Hidan's mouth.

If Simu had not stopped him, he would have long since slaughtered all those hypocritical believers in the base and offered them to Jashin-sama.

In Hidan's eyes, anyone who had not received Jashin-sama's blessing was an insincere hypocrite!

As Hidan kicked open the headquarters' gates, the atmosphere throughout the entire base instantly became tense.

"Lord God Children, you're back?"

This thick-headed Hidan did not notice the changes in headquarters at all and swaggered straight toward the newly built cafeteria.

"Delicious fried pork cutlets, here I come!"