Too Tempting

Holding a faint sense of melancholy, he tried clicking one of the empty skill slots.

Instead of telling him that no skills were available, it jumped straight to the "Inventory" interface he was more familiar with. Inside were three round stones seemingly wreathed in blood, yet shaped somewhat like fruit and beating like hearts. With every pulse, they seemed to draw in and exhale Yokai Power...

They were the spoils he had obtained earlier: Yokai soul cores, heart cores formed from condensed essence of power.

Two had dropped in the Ancestral Hall of Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village, belonging respectively to that Ape Fiend and an ordinary yokai. The third was the soul core of the Horse-Headed Demon that had died so miserably, picked up when he hurriedly scavenged the battlefield before taking the girl down the mountain.

"Hmm... Can soul cores be equipped directly as Skill Badges?"

Gu Mo's gaze flickered. This was very similar to how it worked in games. By attaching a yokai's soul core to a Guardian Spirit, the Guardian Spirit could gain that yokai's skills. Since he himself could receive the Guardian Spirit's possession and use its power, he could indirectly master the yokai's skills as well.

He tried switching back to his own skill page and clicking an empty skill slot, only to find that the soul cores could not be operated there...

He tried removing his only Skill Badge and placing it in the inventory, then switched back to the Guardian Spirit's skill page. There, too, he could only select soul cores; the "Life Potential" Skill Badge he had just removed did not appear.

So the system's description that yokai soul cores "could be used as Skill Badges" had actually meant they could be used on Guardian Spirits? They could not be equipped in his own skill slots. Only proper Skill Badges could go there.

And it worked the other way around too? Guardian Spirits could not use the Skill Badges provided by the system and could only equip soul cores?

Having sorted that out, Gu Mo felt somewhat regretful. But on second thought, he felt he was simply being greedy. Leaving everything else aside, the fact that Guardian Spirits could attach soul cores and let him indirectly master those yokai skills already seemed immensely valuable.

After all, if there was no way to increase the number of skill slots, then based on the current situation, Gu Mo could equip at most around ten Skill Badges. Beyond that number, he would have to make choices among the badges he carried...

He needed damage skills, of course, or how else would he deal damage? He needed defensive skills too, to properly strengthen his survivability.

Then there were control, buffs, mobility, item use or crafting, and so on. Thinking along classic game logic, he realized that if he only had ten slots, skill selection might become genuinely tight... Yet this Guardian Spirit function was equivalent to nearly doubling his available skill slots.

Even if the selection of skills was limited, with the right combinations, it could give his own skill slots much greater flexibility instead of leaving him so constrained.

Having figured it out, Gu Mo immediately felt much better. He shifted his gaze toward the lower left, where two tab-like icons sat. As soon as he focused on them, the tabs slid out and revealed the hidden subpage information.

—"Divine Protection: After receiving the protection of a Guardian Spirit, the host gains powerful permanent blessings and special abilities (Fire Resistance +20, Luck +70, Fire Damage +15%)."

—"Possession Summon: Actively summon the Guardian Spirit to manifest, or have it possess your body in order to use its powerful strength (consumes 1 Energy point per second; cannot be used if Energy is below 10)."

These seemed to be the Guardian Spirit's own Inherent Skills. One was a permanent protective blessing, constantly active like an aura. Although he did not fully understand what degree of protection those numbers represented, it was still undoubtedly a good thing.

The second Inherent Skill was also within his expectations. In this world, anyone who received a Guardian Spirit's protection was no ordinary person. Perhaps not everyone could realize that, but those who did often knew how to actively invoke their Guardian Spirit's power instead of merely receiving its passive, permanent blessing.

For example, Saika Magoichi gained the ability to fly through possession by Yatagarasu;

Shibata Katsuie and Asai Nagamasa fused themselves with their Guardian Spirits, transforming themselves into powerful yokai;

And Imagwa Yoshimoto, the First Archer of the Tokaido, had actually been the one to create the abnormal weather of dark clouds and raging thunder during the Battle of Okehazama. He had summoned lightning to strike enemies on the battlefield, also by using the immense power of the Six-Tusked Elephant.

"But if it requires Energy..." Gu Mo rubbed his chin and considered it. It probably would not be too much of a problem. After all, among those examples of people actively using Guardian Spirit power, not everyone necessarily possessed special powers such as spiritual power or Yokai Power.

When he had the chance, he could test it himself. Maybe stamina, Mental Power, and the like also counted as mana bars?

He opened the level-up page again and found it different from what he had imagined. There was only a Guardian Spirit Level, currently LV1, with an equally empty progress bar. Below it were four rather unusual attributes: "Life," "Yokai Power," "Armor," and "Resistance."

Behind every attribute was a neat progress bar divided into rectangular cells. Most were empty dotted cells, while only the first cell behind each attribute was a brightly colored solid block, as though it had been "lit up."

The Guardian Spirit Level was probably used to upgrade those attributes. All attributes started at level one, and afterward he would need to choose specific paths to specialize in?

Gu Mo nodded with some understanding. But it still meant grinding.

As for the final "Equipment" and "Appearance" interfaces, there was nothing much to say. They truly contained nothing. After roughly exploring everything and gaining a certain understanding of the Guardian Spirit's functions, he switched back to the initial page.

He seemed to have obtained some achievement or other, but where was he supposed to look for it?

He searched around and could not find any button related to it. In the end, his gaze slowly drifted downward to the row of garbled options beneath his reflection. Those seemed to be the only suspicious choices, except their functions were currently malfunctioning and could not be opened at all.

Thinking helplessly, he tried randomly clicking them one by one. To his surprise, the garbled options that had previously given no response actually reacted this time—although the text was still garbled, he could enter them! After freezing for a moment, Gu Mo realized what had happened, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Sure enough! The Idiot System had not simply been hanging in the background doing nothing. It was trying hard to repair itself too?

Wonderful! His trust in it had not been misplaced! From today onward, it was once again his most reliable and powerful cheat!

Suppressing his excitement and apprehension, Gu Mo quickly browsed the first page and discovered it had an extremely simple layout, containing only "Friends," "Blacklist," and "Mail"...

So the first option below was actually the friends function?

Gu Mo did not have time to investigate further. The friends function did not seem especially useful in games anyway. He merely skimmed through it before immediately trying to open the second option. A new page replaced the friends list before his eyes.

Unexpectedly, the second one seemed to be the Achievement List. Amid a densely packed layout filled with gray question-mark icons, two icons at the very top left had lit up, and their contents had been revealed.

The first was a bronze-tin-colored badge called "Beginner." Gu Mo had no idea when he had acquired it and had absolutely no impression of it. Though it was an achievement, it was also a title. Its badge effect was activated by default, and the description read—

"Beginner (Bronze): A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet. Before the player's Life Level or Profession Level reaches level 10, all experience gained by any means is increased by 25% (Active)."

The second achievement was a golden icon, the one he had remembered from before.

"First Blood (Gold): Every great work requires sacrifices to forge it. Your enemies need not understand, but they will obey. Experience gained by the player through combat and killing is increased by 100%. Cannot take effect simultaneously with other limited-type bonus effects (Active)."

Gu Mo immediately became excited. This was the real good stuff, and it truly was the reward he needed most right now.

For a newbie player like him, who had nothing at all, everything else was empty talk. Only leveling up and leveling efficiency were what truly mattered! If he had reached level twenty earlier—no, even level ten would have been enough—would the Thirteen Cherry Blossom Village scenario have been so dangerous and miserable?

Holding back his excitement, he browsed the other gray question-mark icons again. They were probably other achievements or title badges that had yet to be unlocked, perhaps all corresponding to especially useful buff effects. Unfortunately, he could neither see nor touch them now, and clicking them produced no response.

After fiddling around for a while, he could only sigh and back out, continuing to browse the other options.

During the following tests, he failed to open both the third and fourth options. As harsh electric currents shot through his nerves, a prompt flashed across the interface reflected in the water, clearly and explicitly telling him why—

"You cannot use this function during a mission."

Rather than disappointing Gu Mo, this only set his imagination racing even further.

The fifth option worked normally when clicked, but what appeared before him were several different secondary options—"Graphics," "Audio," "Game," "Display"... Beneath those were all sorts of densely packed sub-options.

Things like "Image Quality," "Resolution," "Background Sound Effects," "Dialogue Sound Effects," "Subtitles," and "Language"...

The interface was far too familiar and far too classic. Gu Mo stared at it in speechless bewilderment, not knowing what to say for a moment except that the Idiot System might have some serious problem.

With inexplicable hope, he clicked the final option.

—"Do you wish to end the game?"

The prompt was somewhat cold and unlike the others, but it made perfectly clear what that option represented.

After hesitating, Gu Mo's expression changed strangely. He could not determine whether ending the game meant aborting the mission and leaving the current Dungeon, or completely ending the entire "game." If it was the latter, then how exactly would everything end?

Would he wake up and find himself back in reality, with the system and Dungeons all gone as though he had merely had a strange dream?

Or would the rules and powers that had turned everything into a game simply disappear, while he still failed to leave the Dungeon and return to safe reality? Even worse, perhaps "ending the game" would also end his entire life.

At that thought, Gu Mo immediately became dejected. The Idiot System never played by the rules, and he truly did not dare take that risk.

"Hey, Brother Gu Mo, are you all right?"

Only when Tokichiro's somewhat anxious voice came from behind him did Gu Mo return from his gloom to reality, realizing that he had crouched beside the river for far too long. He hurriedly gathered his thoughts and waved back without turning around. "I'm fine, I'm fine. I just crouched too long and my legs have gone a little numb. I'll be right there..."

Forget it. He would just avoid touching that final option.

At least for now, everything was developing in a positive direction. The Idiot System had gone from being completely unusable at first, to functioning partially to some extent, and now had repaired some bugs that had still existed yesterday...

Gu Mo tried to think as optimistically as possible. Perhaps in a few more days, his cheat would complete its self-check and self-repair, fully return to normal, and stop giving him such high blood pressure all the time.

He equipped his only skill again, then picked up the leather waterskin filled with water from the ground, turned away from the bank, and returned to the carriage.

The long night passed without incident.

There was nothing much worth mentioning. They traveled through the wilderness all night and inevitably suffered attacks from wandering souls and yokai. But every wave that came was simply there to deliver experience. Before Gu Mo could even see how the girl's blade flashed, they had all been beheaded.

The sun rose in the east, slowly moved to its highest point in the sky, then gradually sank as time passed.

As the setting sun dipped low and its afterglow stretched every shadow across the earth, the group of three, having traveled continuously for two days and one night, finally reached Inabayama Castle on the Mino Plain. The mountain-built fortress had three layers inside and out, and its landmark could be seen from miles away: a completely white, three-story, five-tiered Tenshu.

Looking at everything before him, Gu Mo felt somewhat moved. Though it contained fantastical elements, the customs and scenery of this historical era stood vividly before his eyes.

If his phone had not automatically shut down after going two days without charging, he would have wanted to record everything along the way.

When they entered the city, it was clear that Tokichiro was indeed an acquaintance here, perhaps even someone with a little standing. The guards recognized him, and after a few casual words and a few coins, they let them through.

"I'll go pay my respects to Lord Dosan now. Brother Gu Mo, Miss Axiu, would you like to come with me? If you don't want to, you can rest here first, but I still hope you'll come along. At the very least, Lord Dosan can get familiar with your faces and remember you..."

Tokichiro brought the two of them to a fairly clean and simple longhouse in the inner city. Rubbing his hands together with a grin, he invited them to sit and rest while speaking. His eyes practically shone, as though he could already see that everything was ready except the right opportunity, and all he needed was a chance from the lord of Mino Province to rise to prominence.

"..."

"..."

The black-haired girl lightly furrowed her brows, glanced toward someone, then looked at Tokichiro.

"Oh, oh, oh, look at my memory... We should see a doctor first. Come on, Brother Gu Mo!" Tokichiro immediately came to his senses and cursed himself for being so slow. He had used that very reason to persuade Miss Axiu before, so how had he forgotten it now?

Of course, he could not entirely be blamed. After another day and night had passed, Gu Mo seemed to be acting as though nothing had happened—

Though he had slept for a long time again along the way, he really did not seem to have any problems, and before falling asleep, he had clearly said so himself.

"No, no, really, there's no need. I know my own condition. You don't need to worry..." Gu Mo waved his hands repeatedly. He had no desire to see a doctor. Not only was there nothing wrong with him, but even if there were, the medical standards of this era were truly difficult to accept.

"Let's go meet that... cough, cough, let's go meet Lord Dosan first..."

He spoke, then seemed to remember something and looked toward the black-haired girl.

"Oh, right, Axiu. Don't cover your face later. It wouldn't be very polite..."

Politeness was naturally just an excuse. The main thing was that in the original plot, Axiu seemed to have covered her face, which was why Saito Dosan had failed to recognize her... Otherwise, Hidechiyo and Yoshitatsu were twins. How could Saito Dosan possibly fail to notice?

It would have been one thing if he did not know that. But now that he did, Gu Mo naturally had to make use of it. Connections were also an important advantage, after all. Whether it was her combat ability or her own background and status, Axiu was undeniably someone worth relying on.

This was Mino, and Axiu was originally the Princess of Mino.

Well, it was not that he wanted to keep living off a woman, and only cling to one at that. It was just... too tempting.