My Crimson Blood Manipulation

The person involved agonized over the four options for quite a while before finally deciding to hold off for now.

No need to rush.

After all, he had no idea how difficult it was to earn these points.

If these damn points were as hard to get as in Souls games, would that mean he had assigned his "starting points" wrong?

The Jujutsu World did not offer any restart options... so it was better to be cautious.

Besides, compared to that, what Kana Shizumi cared about most right now were the various settings and skills related to jujutsu sorcerers.

Beyond the four basic options described above, there were many other factors that could affect a sorcerer's strength.

Things like "Domain Expansion, Maximum Technique, Sorcerer Reversal, Reversed Sorcerers, Black Flash, and all that..."

Why was this so complicated?!

Though he said that, after giving it some thought, Kana Shizumi more or less got the idea.

These things could probably all be grouped under the branch of "derived abilities"... after all, strictly speaking, they were all techniques, or some kind of advanced art.

Special abilities that could only be triggered after meeting certain conditions.

—Of course, just as he had said before, the Jujutsu World itself did not prize hard work. No matter how hard you worked, you could not compare to talent... some things people were born with were things others could spend their entire lives pursuing without ever obtaining.

So, theoretically speaking.

"Is it possible that even if I max out all four branches, I still won't get the chance to comprehend any derived abilities?"

The moment that thought surfaced, Kana Shizumi was so annoyed by it that he laughed.

It was just a Cursed Energy Core. If I really got all four to 100, how could I possibly fail to grasp them?

At worst, I could ask my biological brother whom I had never met for advice!

So it was more practical to start accumulating points little by little.

With that in mind, Kana Shizumi straightened up and looked around.

He was seated in the corner by the window on the right. The closest person to him was over four meters away, wearing earbuds and carrying a briefcase.

The man looked like an office worker in his forties traveling across regions for work. As long as Kana Shizumi did not make too much of a commotion, there was a ninety-percent chance he would not attract the man's attention.

Letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Kana Shizumi remained in his seat, raised his right hand, held up his index finger, and lightly waved it before him.

Cursed energy silently surged within him and began to circulate.

Theoretically, channeling cursed energy itself required a process.

Whether it was using jujutsu or coating the surface of one's body with it to form something like a shell of Cursed Energy Reinforcement, some amount of "wind-up" time was needed before the action could be completed.

But to the battle-hardened veterans or extraordinarily gifted geniuses in the original story, such things were trivial details.

Kana Shizumi briefly reviewed the plot in his mind...

It seemed that only the handsome second male lead had been caught during his wind-up by Kamo Noritoshi's Flowing Red Scale during the exchange event, then beaten senseless before he could even activate his cursed energy reinforcement.

Ahem. Never mind that for now.

At present, there were two primary directions for him to explore.

The first was developing and studying his own Innate Technique.

The second was mastering Cursed Energy Reinforcement and refining its application.

The former could expand his combat methods and give him more offensive and defensive options.

The latter was simpler: it would purely increase the power of his punches... after all, who would not want to enter the ring and trade satisfying elbow strikes with someone they admired?

Throwing wild haymakers was completely okay too. After all, Sixteen Dragons' Exploding Fragrance Fist was all about overwhelming force, with no technique to speak of.

But back to the point.

Kana Shizumi did not yet understand his own Innate Technique very well, so proper testing and familiarization were necessary.

Modified Blood Manipulation.

The instant his thoughts settled, Kana Shizumi felt something extremely distinct.

His entire body began to tremble involuntarily... it felt like being chilled by the air conditioner in the middle of the night, making him shudder despite himself.

Then—

Thin red threads slowly emerged from his fingertips and gathered about a centimeter in front of his index finger, forming a wriggling, bright-red blood sphere no larger than his pinky nail.

Its color was vivid. It looked incredibly fresh.

But Kana Shizumi was not focused on it. He merely stared at his fingertips, which had turned pale and begun to look bloodless, with a thoughtful expression.

"It actually extracts blood directly through the gaps in my skin?"

To be honest, Kana Shizumi had not seen much of the specific process by which blood was extracted and manifested in the original story.

After all, Kamo Noritoshi was the only "normal" person, all things considered.

Under normal circumstances, he either temporarily punctured his skin or prepared blood bags in advance to solve that problem.

"..."

So I can use that as a reference?

Kana Shizumi brought his thumb to his mouth and bit down hard with his upper and lower teeth.

The pad of his thumb was forcibly crushed open. Blood gushed out, only to be controlled by cursed energy and extracted in an instant, forming a brightly colored, constantly circulating blood sphere beside Kana Shizumi's head.

Just as expected...

If he made an opening in his body, the process of extracting blood would also speed up.

"It consumes less cursed energy and produces a larger volume."

The efficiency was roughly three times that of extracting it through the skin.

And then...

How powerful was it?

After making a simple visual estimate, he looked toward the window beside the front passenger seat.

The night bus was traveling at a steady eighty kilometers per hour. To stay alert, the driver had opened the window for ventilation... and that gap was just perfect as a "sniper perch."

After taking a simple aim, Kana Shizumi's thoughts stirred.

The small spherical blood mass shot out, becoming a Blood Arrow that tore through the air. It passed through the gap in an instant and pierced the trunk of a roadside tree.

When Kana Shizumi saw the visibly dented crater in the tree trunk, he could not help making an "Oh" sound.

The power was pretty decent?

"Could a Grade 3 Sorcerer's technique already be on par with basic firearms?"

That thought naturally made him think of Mai Zenin.

That imprisoned player with the Construction Technique was probably a fairly typical benchmark for combat strength.

She usually carried a submachine gun...

Kana Shizumi shifted his gaze to the other blood mass. After a brief moment of thought, he added a small variable to this round of testing.

He raised his right hand.

He made a finger-gun gesture.

Having read the original story, Kana Shizumi wanted to try something interesting—such as adding hand gestures while using a technique, which was equivalent to making a simple Binding Vow.

Exchanging complexity for power.

But would it really work?