Left with no choice, Radeus had to accept this cruel reality. Right now, he wanted to slap himself twice.
Although the awakening method had been utterly bizarre, at least the process had been simple and easy, right?
He just had to run his mouth. Now look what happened-he had to fulfill prerequisites before he could unlock his cheat.
People really couldn't sympathize with themselves!
Radeus returned to the study, where Rudeus was busy devouring a book.
"Huh? Did you fall into the toilet pit? Why do you look so constipated?"
Seeing the half-dead expression on Radeus's face, Rudeus had no idea what had happened.
"Ugh, don't even mention it. Compared to what I went through, I'd rather have fallen into the pit!"
Radeus waved a hand and told Rudeus what had just happened.
"Hahaha! A genius, you're a real genius! That's what you get for running your mouth!"
Rudeus stopped reading and clutched his stomach as he roared with laughter. This was the first time he'd heard of anything so outrageous. It was as bizarre as Kazuma's death in KonoSuba!
"All right, all right, stop laughing!"
Radeus immediately went red with anger.
Seeing Radeus's face grow redder and redder, Rudeus knew he shouldn't keep laughing, or he would be the one crying shortly.
"I'm done laughing. So, what does this ability of yours do? Is it the same as in that Jujutsu Kaisen you told me about?"
Rudeus immediately became serious, not a trace of a smile on his face.
"It's a little different. I told you what it did in Jujutsu Kaisen before, right?"
"I remember it involved taming ten kinds of Shikigami?"
Rudeus thought for a moment before answering.
Since this other world had little in the way of entertainment, and Radeus was a veteran anime fan, going without anime was extremely uncomfortable for him.
So he often dragged Rudeus over to recount the plots of anime he'd watched in his previous life. As a shut-in otaku, Rudeus was naturally enthusiastic too, listening with rapt interest.
In particular, he'd focused on Jujutsu Kaisen, an anime full of quotes from absolute lunatics.
"That's right, taming ten kinds of Shikigami. But now it's changed."
"Currently, my Ten Shadows Technique doesn't have any Shikigami to tame, and there's no limit on their number either. Mahoraga is the only one left that I can summon. I can vaguely sense it."
"Also, I can dive into my shadow and use it as a storage space. There are no limits inside, and the weight doesn't get loaded onto my body."
"In other words, I won't have to do elephant versus house or enter a weightlifting competition."
As he spoke, Radeus demonstrated it for Rudeus.
Radeus instantly disappeared before Rudeus's eyes, dropping into his own shadow before emerging from Rudeus's.
"Holy shit! Why are you behind me?!"
Rudeus jumped in fright at Radeus, nearly shaking out a couple drops of pee.
"That's another effect. I can travel through shadows, though only over short distances for now, no farther than ten meters. Also, living things can't stay inside the shadow space for long. Shadows are like water; they'll suffocate you."
Radeus was getting familiar with his Cursed Technique bit by bit.
"The abilities are good, but they don't seem to have much offensive power right now. They're even less lethal than the original!"
Rudeus offered his assessment after watching Radeus's demonstration.
"True. If that were all, it'd just be a support skill with an ultimate as a fallback. But it has one more effect, the most important one!"
Radeus gave a mysterious smile, instantly piquing Rudeus's interest.
"Oh?"
"Although I can't tame the other nine kinds of Shikigami, I can extract the shadows of dead life-forms and turn them into my own Shikigami. Their loyalty is maxed out, and their combat strength isn't weakened, remaining at the level they had before death."
"And as long as my mana hasn't run out, the Shikigami won't die. Even if they do, they can quickly return. What's more, their strength isn't fixed."
"Their strength will keep increasing according to how long they spend in my shadow. My shadow is basically an experience pack for them. Being inside my shadow is like training."
"Most freaking importantly, because there aren't any Shikigami to tame in the first place, there's no limit to how many Shikigami I can have. That means I could even assemble a nation's worth of shadow soldiers-no, an entire world's worth of undead troops!"
"Keh heh heh!!!"
The more Radeus spoke, the more excited he became, until he even started making inexplicable laughing noises.
After he finished, Radeus felt more familiar with his Cursed Technique. Was this the effect of revealing his technique?
At first, Radeus had also thought the Ten Shadows Technique had been ruined by the modifications. He hadn't expected an epic buff instead. It was similar to Sung Jinwoo's ability in Solo Leveling, and even far surpassed it in growth potential.
Sure enough, anything made by the Reincarnation Space was guaranteed to be quality!
This feels amazing! Amazing!
"Holy freaking crap!"
Rudeus was stunned. He'd thought it might be a little overpowered, but he'd never expected it to be this overpowered!
What an enviable ability! He wanted it so badly too!
Why hadn't he encountered the Reincarnation Space when he reincarnated?!
This isn't fair! I demand another reincarnation!
"Doesn't that make you invincible?"
Rudeus looked at Radeus with envy written all over his face.
"Not quite, because I can only extract shadows from things I killed myself, or things you killed!"
Radeus shook his head. It sounded somewhat restrictive, but in practice, it wasn't much of a restriction.
If he wanted a high-level monster but couldn't beat it himself, he could simply get a Demon King to escort him. He only needed to land the final blow.
"I see. But why do my kills count too?"
Rudeus asked in confusion.
"Because in Jujutsu, twins are considered the same person, so your kills count as mine!"
"Huh? But isn't this another world? That rule still works here?" Rudeus was dumbfounded.
Rudeus had also heard Radeus explain that twins were considered the same person, but wasn't that something from the world of Jujutsu Kaisen?
Could this actually be Jujutsu Kaisen?
How the hell could that be possible?!!!
"No idea. That's what the instruction manual says!"
"Nice!"
This Reincarnation Space was a little too unreasonable.
"So, make sure you work hard killing monsters from now on. I'll just harvest them from the sidelines!"
"Oh, screw you!"
"Wait, I remember your Six Eyes let you use almost no mana, right?"
Rudeus suddenly realized something.
"Yep! Why?"
"And you know a Healing Spell powerful enough to revive the dead, right?"
"You mean..."
As he listened to Rudeus, Radeus's eyes gradually lit up.
"ヽ(´▽`)ﾉYes~"
"Exactly what you're thinking!"
Rudeus nodded.
As everyone knew, Mahoraga's taming ritual would indiscriminately attack everyone within range, including the caster, and the taming wouldn't end unless either the caster or Mahoraga died.
Meanwhile, Radeus's Healing Spell could continuously heal him, keeping him alive forever, and thanks to his Six Eyes, casting the Healing Spell cost practically nothing.
That meant Mahoraga could keep fighting. The opponent would either have to kill him or kill Mahoraga, or the battle would never stop.
From now on, anyone I meet gets a Furube, Yurayura. I'll just take zero pressure-how are you supposed to play against that?
What if Mahoraga and the opponent both attack me, you ask?
Holy Chovy, can't you play dead?
Just take a hit from Mahoraga right at the start, lie on the ground playing dead, and jump back out once Mahoraga kills the enemy.
As for how to deal with Mahoraga afterward? Never mind that for now!
Besides, if he couldn't tame Mahoraga later on, he could simply team up with Rudeus and give Mahoraga a mixed doubles beating.
After all, twins counted as one person, so technically, only one person would be fighting Mahoraga!
"You sure have a lot of crafty ideas!"
"Oh, not that many. Just second best in the world!"
P.S. By the way, do you all think Nanahoshi and Nina-the one connected to Sword God Gino-should join the harem? Thinking about it now, Nanahoshi really is so pitiful. With the foundation in swordsmanship and Magic Circles now, writing her romance would be easier!
Before you continue