Ten X Shu

[Shu]!

Recalling how he had wrapped the branch in Nen Aura earlier, Baishi had gained some understanding of it, even if the experience came from a few of Illumi's training memories.

As an advanced application of [Ten], [Shu] was not particularly difficult. Once someone had mastered [Ten], they could extend it from enveloping their body to enveloping objects in contact with it.

Just like now.

Hum!

At Baishi's command, black-purple Nen Aura swiftly coiled around the entire cane sword like little snakes, covering it.

Just as [Ten] passively enhanced the body's offense and defense when wrapped around it, [Shu] also had an inherent strengthening property. Covering a stone made it harder, while covering a shovel made it sharper.

The cane sword was now wrapped in the black-purple Nen Aura of [Shu]. Not only had its toughness been temporarily enhanced, but, most importantly, Baishi could even sense an exceptionally sharp sword aura at the pointed tip of its slender blade.

Time to test it!

Baishi walked up to a giant tree, gripped the cane sword's nonslip leather handle, and thrust straight at the trunk with thirty percent of his strength.

Squelch!

The blade slid into the trunk without resistance, as though stabbing tofu. Seeing this, Baishi pulled the cane sword out and thrust again, his arm extending and retracting like a spring.

Squelch, squelch, squelch!

Finger-wide cuts kept appearing in the trunk.

Hmm?

That doesn't work?

Baishi opened the stone panel during the test. Seeing that his proficiency in [Needle-Person Control] had not increased at all, he immediately stopped the ineffective thrusts. After thinking for a moment, he tentatively preset an operation's triggering property in the black-purple Nen Aura wrapped around the blade.

Squelch, squelch, squelch!

Three rapid thrusts in succession!

[Proficiency in the Talisman Needle-Person Control +1]!

Proficiency had increased only after the first of the three thrusts; the other two had produced no response. That confirmed Baishi's hypothesis.

To increase a Talisman's proficiency, he had to meet its hidden restriction. In the case of [Needle-Person Control], the hidden restriction was that he had to set the corresponding trigger conditions for an operation in a Nen Aura medium beforehand. Whether or not the target was controlled, the Talisman's proficiency would increase.

I'm testing it on an inanimate object now. If I actually trigger it and control a living being, will proficiency increase more?

The thought flashed through his mind as Baishi continued thrusting. As he did, he kept making subtle adjustments to the preset trigger conditions for the operation, reducing the Nen Aura consumed when setting them.

He discovered that rigidly applying the introductory manipulation experience he had gained from Illumi consumed far more Nen Aura than when he tested and adjusted the operation's requirements, so he immediately made fine adjustments.

The most important thing now was to raise the Talisman's proficiency and thereby improve the precision of his Nen Aura control. With no target to manipulate, any increase in strength helped.

Even so, this also meant consuming more and more Nen Aura.

Although the ability [Needle-Person Control] gave him a boost, he had only just awakened, and his total Nen Aura had not increased at all from that initial level. So whenever he consumed Nen Aura setting a trigger condition, he had to stop and rest for a while to recover some.

Compared with [Zetsu], which was specifically used to restore Aura reserves, [Ten] restored them extremely slowly. More Aura was spent enveloping and nourishing his body and strengthening the weapon.

With the boost from [Needle-Person Control], can I learn [Zetsu] faster?

Through a gap in the trees, Baishi glanced toward the warehouse, where the Hunter Exam had yet to begin, and habitually thrust the sword with its preset condition into the trunk.

Squelch!

[Restriction - Advent Emulation Talisman: Needle-Person Control (purple / proficiency 1%)]

[Restriction - Forced Equivalence: Essence +1]

Huh!

In an instant, Baishi felt his badly depleted stamina return, leaving him brimming with energy. His expression turned to one of utter surprise. He had not expected an increase in an emulated Talisman's proficiency to affect one of his [essence, Aura, and spirit] as well.

Moreover, with [Essence +1], he could clearly feel his muscles rapidly tensing and relaxing as they grew noticeably stronger. Not only had his stamina improved, but it was as though his entire body had been strengthened twofold.

Whoa... doesn't that mean that as long as I emulate enough Talismans and increase their proficiency fast enough, my physique can keep getting stronger?!

At the thought of how powerful a stats monster could be, Baishi's eyes lit up.

Hum!

Just then, memories and experience from Illumi's proficiency with his Nen Ability merged into Baishi's mind like data.

He narrowed his eyes, quickly absorbing and digesting them.

The Restriction - Forced Equivalence... is this the result of a "compromise" between the world's rules and the original Talisman Wheel system?

Baishi opened his eyes and chuckled.

Whatever the case, he was the one who benefited from the strengthening. Since the outcome was good, wouldn't it be rather rude of him to dwell on it too much?

Looks like the Talisman Wheel still has plenty of hidden functions I don't know about...

Baishi played with the stone wheel in his left hand and gave it a meaningful look. With a turn of his right wrist, he slid the cane sword back into its scabbard and turned the mechanism to lock it. Then he fed a thread of Nen Aura into the wheel to summon the data panel.

[Talisman Wheel (Conjuration)]

[Initial quality: stone]

[Bound host: Baishi]

[Restriction - Digitized Attributes: Essence: 6-7 / Aura: 5-100 / Spirit: 5-6]

[Restriction - Advent Emulation Talisman: Needle-Person Control (purple / proficiency 1%)]

[Restriction - Advent Emulation Count: 0]

[Restriction - Wheel Primary Socket: 1/1]

[Restriction - Wheel Secondary Socket: 0/24]

[Restriction - Mandatory Main Quest: Retrieve the Lost Talisman!]

[Restriction - Temporary Weighting Task: Not triggered]

Hmm...

After confirming the changes to [Essence] and the Talisman's proficiency, Baishi grew thoughtful, then turned his attention to the restriction task.

Tsk~

The mandatory main quest was to find the lost Talismans.

Baishi raised an eyebrow, though he wasn't particularly surprised. After all, the wheel had been a free gift when he bought the Twelve Talismans at the convention.

There were none of the penalties found in many novels he had read, but according to the note, recovering the Talismans would earn him a one-way chance to transmigrate.

He could either ignore the quest and stay in this world until he died, or recover the Talismans and gain a chance to transmigrate to another world.

As an anime fan, Baishi was naturally interested in traveling to other worlds. Besides, the thought that someone else might pick up and use Talismans that should have belonged to him made him uncomfortable all over.

In particular, the Dog Talisman among the Twelve Talismans seemed to possess immortal powers representing eternal life, everlasting youth, and an undying body and soul. If it really did possess those absurdly powerful abilities, like the wheel...

Baishi's eyes gleamed.

Who else but me could be the master of the Talismans!

But... here comes the problem~

First, which Talismans were lost in this world, and how should I find them?

Never mind the Dark Continent, whose story had yet to begin in the original work, with its nearly limitless, mysterious, bizarre, and vast territory. Even the Hunter world where he now stood, known as Lake Mobius, had an enormous population of hundreds of billions.

Just thinking about how vast a territory needed to hold such an enormous population had to be... Baishi couldn't help rubbing his temples.

If he really searched aimlessly and had no luck at all, he probably wouldn't find them even if he searched until he died of old age, would he?

Hopefully, the lost Talismans are completely sealed, just like the wheel...

At that thought, Baishi flicked the Talisman Wheel with his fingertip and said helplessly, "Can't you give me a hint? You were a system before, at least, weren't you? Did the world's rules destroy you and crash you...?"

Before he had finished speaking-

Hum! Without warning, the wheel drew in a thread of the Nen Aura wrapped around his fingertip, and several extremely vague impressions suddenly emerged in Baishi's consciousness.

Whoosh!

Baishi jerked his head up, his surprised gaze sweeping in every direction as though it could see through the dense forest. In his consciousness, those vague impressions were pointing out approximate directions, like a radar.

It really can!