Progress

Creak~

The door closed again.

The grief on Qian's face vanished in an instant. Although he had merged with his predecessor's memories, he did not have much affection for those "parents" he had never met.

However, for the sake of this Survivor's Benefit, Qian decided that from now on, he would bring a bouquet of flowers to their graves every year.

Of course, that was assuming he survived.

Otherwise, nothing he said would matter.

He opened the envelope and counted. Inside was a total of one million and ten thousand ryō.

"Not bad. No one actually skimmed any off!"

His predecessor's parents had both been Chunin. After dying in battle, the Survivor's Benefit was five hundred thousand ryō per person.

That, plus the ten thousand ryō in living expenses issued by the clan, made one million and ten thousand ryō exactly, not a single coin more or less.

But thinking about it, that made sense. If even this kind of money was embezzled, what cohesion would the clan have left?

Besides, One Million Ryō looked like a lot, but in reality, it was not.

In Konoha, the reward for a D-Rank Mission was five thousand to fifty thousand ryō, a C-Rank Mission was thirty thousand to one hundred thousand ryō, a B-Rank Mission was eighty thousand to two hundred thousand ryō, an A-Rank Mission could pay from one hundred fifty thousand to one million ryō, and an S-Rank Mission paid over one million ryō.

Chunin could take C-Rank and B-Rank Missions, while Jonin could take B-Rank and A-Rank Missions. Although the village took a cut and teammates shared the profits, one million ryō still was not hard to earn.

As for the ten thousand ryō in living expenses.

A single bowl of ramen cost Sixty Ryō. If he ate ramen for all three meals a day, that would be five thousand four hundred ryō in a month.

And that was only "eating."

For ninja, the real expense was the cost of training.

So ten thousand ryō in living expenses was only enough to keep Qian from starving. If he wanted to invest in training, that was undoubtedly pure fantasy.

For more than the past week, he had been training under exactly those conditions.

Now things were different. With this One Million Ryō, he could completely buy some secret medicines to aid his training.

As soon as this thought came to him, Qian walked out of the house and went straight to the pharmacy run by the Nara clan.

In Konoha, the ones with the highest achievements in medicine were the Nara clan. The things they produced were synonymous with quality.

However, after browsing around, Qian discovered that the thing most useful to him was actually Soldier Pills.

That was right, the kind of Soldier Pill where eating one could replace a meal.

They could supplement all the nutrition the human body needed and were generally used as rations when ninja went out on missions.

Some special Soldier Pills could even temporarily increase a ninja's chakra.

However, Qian did not need that kind of Soldier Pill. He only needed the kind that could be eaten as food.

That way, he could extend the training time for the Chakra Refining Technique, then use the extra chakra to practice the Three Body Technique, eventually forming a chain effect that increased the Proficiency of multiple skills at the same time.

Once he thought of it, Qian did it. He took out his money and, under the clerk's strange gaze, bought a large quantity of Soldier Pills in one go.

Fortunately, they were only Soldier Pills. If it had been some other supplies, it might have attracted the village's attention.

However, just in case, Qian did not plan to go out to eat for some time afterward.

That way, at most, others would think he was training hard and eating Soldier Pills as meals.

······

Back home.

Qian opened the Status Panel.

The familiar pale-blue light screen appeared in his field of vision:

[Name: Uchiha Qian

Age: 10

Physical Constitution: 5

Spirit: 7

Chakra: 17(131→159)

Bloodline: Sharingan · Unawakened (51/100)

Skills: Chakra Refining Technique: lv0(8/100)→lv0(53/100)

Clone Technique: lv0(46/100)→lv1(2/200)

*Transformation Technique: lv0(77/100)

*Substitution Technique: lv0(71/100)

Basic Body Technique: lv0(35/100)→lv1(16/200)

Ninja Tool Throwing: lv1(29/200)→lv2(10/500)]

Over the past week, he had persisted in training the Chakra Refining Technique for four hours every night. Most of the time, he could only gain six points of Proficiency, but occasionally, there would still be one extra.

And so, over seven days, he gained a total of forty-five Proficiency points.

That raised his "Chakra Refining Technique" from lv0 (8/100) to lv0 (53/100), putting him past the halfway mark.

During this period, his Chakra Limit increased by 28 points, going from 131 to 159. It still was not much, but at least he could see hope now.

Qian believed that as long as he kept at it, sooner or later he could become "Cha Jinla," or even "Cha Dunla"!

In addition, the two hundred points of chakra he recovered each day by practicing the "Chakra Refining Technique" were all put into practicing ninjutsu.

For the first two days, he focused his efforts and ground "Clone Technique" up to lv1, successfully reaching the entry level and becoming able to create an illusory figure.

After that, just as planned, he muddled through the Weekly Exam.

However, once "Clone Technique" reached lv1, the same problem as "Ninja Tool Throwing" appeared—if he kept practicing, he could only gain one Proficiency point each time.

Qian knew that this was as far as his predecessor's level went. From here on out, he could only rely on himself.

So he turned around and began practicing "Transformation Technique" and "Substitution Technique."

Thanks to the experience and memories left behind by his predecessor, the speed of cultivating these two ninjutsu was no worse than "Clone Technique" before it reached the entry level.

Basically, every practice session earned him two to three Proficiency points.

Thus, in five days, he ground the Proficiency of "Transformation Technique" and "Substitution Technique" up to lv0 (77/100) and lv0 (71/100)!

At this pace, in two or three days at most, these two skills of his would reach the entry level.

By then, the legacy his predecessor had left behind would more or less be exhausted.

Then there was "Basic Body Technique."

Over the past week, Sugi Itto had organized three more sparring matches.

Using those opportunities, his "Basic Body Technique" smoothly reached the entry level and even surged to lv1 (16/200), but that was as far as it went.

After that, he would need to practice it steadily and honestly.

Finally, there was "Ninja Tool Throwing." Its progress was still the fastest, and it had now reached Lv2 (10/500)!

At this stage, with a stationary target within ten meters, he could already hit the bull's-eye one hundred percent of the time.

This level was no worse than some Genin who had graduated two or three years ago.

However, "Ninja Tool Throwing" had its limitations after all.

Qian estimated that if he could not awaken the Sharingan, then at most he could only grind its Proficiency to lv3.

After all, practicing now required him to shoot at a target fifteen meters away, and he had to hit the bull's-eye too; otherwise, his Proficiency would not increase at all.

And going from Lv2 to lv3 required a full five hundred Proficiency points.

It was easy to imagine that once he maxed it out, his level should be no weaker than ordinary Chunin and Jonin.

Unless he had the Sharingan to assist him and could play all kinds of tricks with ninja tools, otherwise...

If he wanted to kill people by such means, aside from Sneak Attacks, ganging up, or bullying those much weaker than himself, it was basically impossible.

"But the Sharingan..."

Qian glanced at the (51/100) progress on the Status Panel and fell silently speechless.

Over the past week or so, it was not that he had never thought about raising the awakening progress of the Sharingan, but after trying several methods, he had not seen any results.

That progress was like it had gotten stuck, not budging at all.

However, Qian did not give up. Since the Status Panel could display it, that meant its progress could be pushed forward. He simply had not found the right method yet.