Sage Transformation

Late at night, when all was quiet, the old headmistress slowly opened the door. Holding a candle, she looked over the children's faces and found that they were all sound asleep. She nodded in satisfaction, then carefully closed the door.

As the old headmistress's footsteps faded down the corridor, Kirito Tonsaka slowly opened his eyes a few minutes later. He quietly slipped out of bed and left the room without making a sound.

"The moon is so full tonight."

Kirito looked at the moon in the night sky and smiled, then left the Orphanage under the bright moonlight.

Before long, he arrived at a large rock outside, sat down on it, closed his eyes, and assumed a meditative posture beneath the full moon.

Kirito quickly cleared his mind of all stray thoughts, letting it enter as empty and tranquil a state as possible.

Soon, he noticed countless colorful specks of light appearing in his darkened vision. They slowly gathered around him before entering his body.

The instant the motes entered his body, Kirito felt a stabbing pain course through him. Yet along with it came an indescribable sensation of exhilaration that he found himself somewhat enjoying.

Painful yet pleasurable—this was how Kirito felt at the moment.

So Kirito willingly endured the pain caused by the motes entering his body.

As time passed, the pain continued to intensify, and so did the pleasure that accompanied it. Kirito began to sweat, his breathing grew heavier, and his skin gradually turned red.

After about a minute, when his body began to feel saturated, Kirito opened his eyes and stopped cultivating.

He then jumped down from the boulder and wrapped his small hands around it.

The next moment, Kirito lifted the rock, which weighed at least a hundred pounds.

After barely ten seconds, Kirito's little face flushed red as he finally could not hold on any longer. His legs trembling, he put the rock back down.

"Whew... I finally lasted ten seconds."

Kirito patted his hands together and said between heavy breaths.

The innate ability to absorb Natural Energy—Sage Transformation—was an ability Kirito had gained after crossing over by absorbing the original owner's memories. Put simply, it had been the original owner's talent.

However, the original owner had been too weak. After awakening this talent similar to Jugo's, he had unconsciously absorbed Natural Energy and immediately fallen seriously ill. In the end, unable to endure the torment his body suffered day and night, coupled with thoughts of suicide he had long harbored, those negative thoughts were amplified by Natural Energy. That had allowed the current Kirito to take over his body smoothly.

After crossing over, Kirito himself had once been tormented by Natural Energy to the point of wishing he were dead. The reason he had survived was thanks to a transmigrator's benefits: foreknowledge and a cheat.

His cheat was something called an Attribute Panel. It quantified his abilities in detail and could be summoned at any time according to his will for him to inspect.

Thanks to the Attribute Panel, Kirito had immediately realized that Natural Energy was what had been tormenting him. Then, by keeping himself calm and eliminating negative emotions such as fear, agitation, and anger, he had finally used his will to shut off his Sage Body's automatic absorption of Natural Energy.

Natural Energy was undoubtedly an incredibly powerful force. It was the foundation for cultivating Sage Art.

However, people without a Sage Transformation Constitution would often turn into stone if they rashly absorbed it.

Those born with the ability to absorb Natural Energy would not turn to stone, but if they lacked sufficient understanding of Natural Energy, their inability to control it perfectly would amplify their negative emotions, eventually causing them to go berserk and destroy themselves.

Since Kirito possessed the ability of Sage Transformation, he naturally would not waste such a talent. Especially now, when he was weak and had no one to rely on, he needed to tap into its potential as much as possible so that he could gain the strength to protect himself in this unfamiliar world.

Thus, after successfully mastering the switch for absorbing Natural Energy, he had continued secretly cultivating it. To keep it as confidential as possible, he snuck outside to train every night.

After training for some time, he discovered that cultivating Natural Energy could not be accomplished overnight and had to be done step by step.

At present, he could only absorb a tiny amount of Natural Energy each day. Absorbing any more carried the risk of his body exploding or going berserk.

Natural Energy truly deserved to be called a powerful force. After cultivating it for only around a month, his physical qualities had improved noticeably.

Kirito could clearly see this from the changes in the Strength and Speed values shown on the Attribute Panel. When he had first crossed over, both his Strength and Speed had been 0, showing just how insignificant his power and speed were. Now, both had reached 2.

Kirito's current Attribute Panel looked like this:

Attribute Panel:

Ninjutsu 0, Taijutsu 0, Genjutsu 0, Wisdom 2, Strength 2, Speed 2, Stamina 1, Hand Seals 0

(Ninjutsu: mastery and proficiency in ninjutsu; Taijutsu: mastery and proficiency in taijutsu; Genjutsu: mastery and proficiency in genjutsu; Wisdom: breadth of knowledge and IQ; Strength: overall muscular strength, including arm and leg strength; Speed: agility of movement and reaction; Stamina: amount of chakra; Hand Seals: mastery and proficiency in hand seals)

Constitution: Sage Transformation

Chakra Affinity: Lightning, Yin, Yang

Chakra Nature: Wind 0, Fire 0, Water 0, Earth 0, Lightning 0, Yin 0, Yang 0

Ninjutsu:

Enhancement Points: 0

Besides the increase in Strength and Speed, his sensory abilities had also improved. The most obvious changes were his eyesight, including dynamic vision, his hearing, and his perception of chakra. It was now difficult for any movement within twenty meters of him to escape his notice.

As for chakra, the power formed from the fusion of physical energy and spiritual energy, it had also been slowly increasing as the Natural Energy stored in his body grew.

Kirito still did not know how to refine chakra. When he had first crossed over, he had very little chakra in his body, and his Stamina on the Attribute Panel had displayed 0. But now it was already Stamina 1, showing that cultivating Natural Energy could likewise increase chakra.

Kirito guessed that this was related to the increase in his physical and spiritual energy. Cultivating Natural Energy could enhance both types of power.

After finishing his Natural Energy cultivation, Kirito picked up some small stones from the ground. Once he had gathered around a hundred, he threw them forcefully at a nearby rock.

He could not find any decent weapons at the Orphanage, so the stones scattered everywhere on the ground had become his favorite weapons. He used them to practice the simple and practical Stone Throwing Technique. Once he mastered it, it would also be easier for him to practice Kunai throwing later on.

The improvement in his muscular strength and eyesight gave him a great advantage in practicing the Stone Throwing Technique. The stones he threw were swift and fierce. After nearly a month of training, his Stone Throwing Technique had achieved minor success, and both his force application and accuracy had improved considerably.

After throwing all one hundred stones, Kirito shook his somewhat sore arm and returned to the Orphanage.

When he returned, he found Yakushi Nonō standing at the entrance.

Kirito was not surprised by this. He merely smiled at the blonde girl and said, "Good evening."

Sneaking out every night—after doing it so often, there was no way he could keep it hidden from everyone else forever.

As the saying went, if you walked by the river often enough, your shoes were bound to get wet.

After all, he was no powerful ninja, just an ordinary child.

Not long ago, Yakushi Nonō had discovered him. She was the first person to notice, but instead of exposing him, she had chosen to help him cover it up.

Kirito had asked her then why she was willing to help him. Nonō had replied that they were family.

From that day on, Kirito finally had a home in this other world. He developed a sense of belonging to the Orphanage and hoped that the family living here would only grow better and better.

The fish trap was Kirito's first gift to his family.

Hearing Kirito's greeting, Nonō rolled her eyes at him irritably, then handed him a clean change of clothes. "Wash up before coming back to sleep. Keep it down—the director has been sleeping lightly lately."

"Okay."

Kirito took the clothes and smiled.

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