It went without saying that his sensei had a few questions. More than a few, really, considering how badly cut, bludgeoned, and bruised Tobio was. The last time the man had seen him this ragged, he'd basically been ground meat in Takigakure, so his concern was fairly understandable. Tobio usually won his fights, and if he'd had to keep battling Otso, that winning streak would have come to a swift end. There was no shame in admitting when he was more than a little outmatched...and drunk.
"Lemme get this straight," Tekuno spoke, breathing through his nostrils slowly to settle himself. It wasn't hard to tell his sensei was a little frazzled, but also relieved, just by the set of his shoulders as he looked down at Tobio. "Not only did you make contact with a clan of Summons I've never heard of, you got into a drinking competition with one of their elders, and proceeded to hold your own."
Tobio nodded, grinning toothily at his poor, overworked, anxious sensei. "Uh-huh, uh-huh."
"Then after that, drunk off your gourd, you then proceeded to get into a knockdown, brutal fight, where you were crushed underneath…I dunno, hundreds of pounds of weight?"
The boy hummed noncommittally in agreement at that estimation. It seemed a little low, since he was pretty sure the bear he was fighting had been in the scale of thousands of pounds. Grizzly bears back home could reach almost a ton in terms of weight, and Otso was even larger than any ursine on the fossil record by far. Correcting his sensei didn't feel as if it'd do the older man's nerves any favor, though, so Tobio keptt his observation to himself..
"Something like that." Whatever powers of deception that Tobio possessed weren't enough to completely slide his feelings on the matter past his sensei. Blessedly, the man didn't confront him on them.
"Okay…" Tekuno sighed, eyes shutting closed. "Well, we can call it a tentative success if nothing else. Do you need to get back there right now, or can it wait till later?"
Tobio winced, some of it from the aching feeling of his wounds, but mostly from the timing of when he'd been pulled away. "It…wasn't the best time to pluck me out of the scene, admittedly."
With a huff, the man nodded slowly, hands perched on his hips. "We'll send you back, don't worry. Are you feeling okay? You look, uh…" Awful? Bad? Yes, the boy was aware of it and how he felt, but ultimately that was just pain, which could be ignored. You'd be amazed at what you could work through when you were able to turn off your pain receptors. Not great in the long-term, but he could always heal from anything that didn't kill him anyway.
"I've been better," Tobio admitted, shooting his sensei a bloody grin. "But gimme a trip to the medic-nin's, and I'll be right as rain."
The sigh that erupted out of his sensei was a soul-deep one, as he gently nudged his tutee back to the summoning circle. "Let's get you back in the ring, before they think twice about having you sign the scroll."
"I think I made a good impression, so I doubt they'd backtrack."
"Maybe they would, if they knew what a headache your antics are," his sensei snarked, rolling his eyes at Tobio's nonchalance.
It didn't take him very long to be shunted back across the blind eternities, to wherever the hell Summons ended up living. And before very long, he was there in front of Otso once again, beaming like the golden child he was. Well, covered in blood and battered beyond belief, but that sort of thing seemed like it only served to endear him all the more to the various bears. If they were the sort to want soft, svelte contractors, he would have never had them as his closest spiritual connection in the first place.
"You've returned? Good," the blonde bear grunted, lifting his bulk off of the ground as Tobio approached. "Come, come. If you're to sign our scroll, you've got to speak with the eldest."
Logically, Tobio knew that the bears had elders, but he'd been presuming that Otso had been one of their number. His confusion was writ large across his features, as he walked swiftly to keep up with his guide's long gait. "The eldest?"
"The oldest we can still wake up, anyway," the massive bear explained, leading him through the party that seemed to have intensified in his absence. "Our people, as we grow older, tend to sleep for longer and longer, until…one day, we slip into a slumber that we'll never return from."
Tobio blinked. "I'm…sorry?"
"Don't be," the massive male bear shook his head. "They're with the ancestors now, feasting and fighting till we're called for war once more, at the end of all things." If it worked for the giant bears, he wasn't going to begrudge them for a system that worked for their society. Judging them on the basis of human morality felt like it'd already be a failing proposition from the start.
That didn't mean he wasn't a little curious, as he was guided along the well-trodden dirt paths through the village. "Is this a disease or something, that's afflicting your elders?" Because if so, it wasn't without merit that his Elixir might be able to solve a bit of the problem.
A low, rumbling consideration poured forth from the fair bear. "Mm, not as you'd see it, though other Clans would say otherwise," he admitted, as they came toward a massive cave opening, carved into the earth. "As our people age, we begin to accumulate natural energy passively."
That was enough to make Tobio almost trip over himself, face whipping toward Otso. "Sage chakra?! You guys naturally mix Sage Chakra?"
"No, that's the result of mixing chakra and natural energy. If we had a sage, we could likely prevent the end result of this process or curtail it, but…"
Whatever he was going to say was null and void as they headed down the large, rounded pathway, carved straight through solid rock. Torches were lit, more like braziers with their sheer size, on either side of the path. Nor were they bare, stone walls either. Surprisingly intricate carvings of ursine figures in scenes and settings that were hard to discern the events within were all around them, roughly made, as if they'd been scraped from the rock rather than done with tools. Perhaps that was the case in the end, considering the fucking daggers they had attached to their paws. Still, it was a bit eerie until they came to a sprawling, vast antechamber, where the lack of explanation made a touch more sense when he got a glimpse at the 'elders'.
Especially as he saw the sheer, almost endless size of the cave, as he adjusted his sight to acclimate to the low-light environment. In this cave complex, there were…dozens of bears? Hundreds? Maybe more, as they were shaped into the stone and the floor, over who knew how many generations. Massive, stone bears that might have been alive at some point or another. If they were all still living, breathing creatures, it could have been an awe-inspiring sight, a real force that could have brought one of the Elemental Nations to their knees, if they could have ever been brought to bear.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if they'd accumulated enough natural energy that their bodies could no longer hold the change back. It was one thing to see it happen to the toads, or understand it was a thing that was feasible. Seeing it in person was another matter entirely. Huge forms, lying unmoving, like the finest carved statues that he'd ever seen, still as the grave among their own kith and kin. "Jesus fucking christ…" Tobio breathed out, eyes shining with quiet awe.
"This is the graveyard, cub of man. And this is where many of our elders rest, in preparation for their final slumber." Tobio couldn't tell if this entire situation was remarkably fucked, or if it was pretty tame compared to most deaths he'd seen. It wasn't even a violent end, just…
One day, you'd go to sleep, and you wouldn't wake up. You'd become a stiff, unmoving statue for all eternity.
Something about that seemed profoundly sad to him, but he didn't have the words to enunciate what it might have been. Nearer to the entrance of the antechamber were bears that were actually still alive, large as all of the rest of their kin, but sleeping. Soundly snoring or muttering softly in dialects he couldn't even recognize.
All of them, now that he was paying attention to it, were radiating some strange energy. Tobio hadn't really ever felt natural energy before, but now that he knew what he was looking for, it was impossible to miss. This graveyard was practically saturated in it, with the innumerable bodies that had returned all of their built-up excess to the environment once they met their demise.
If it ever came to it, the place might have even been a pretty good spot to train Sage mode. Tobio didn't think he'd need it, but he didn't think he'd have ever aimed for a Summon Contract either. Who knew what he'd end up desiring to train into the future? And Sage Mode, for all of the hassles that went into acquiring it, was a natural way to gain more power that wasn't reliant on perks.
The bear they seemed to be moving toward wasn't the biggest out of the bunch. In fact, they were oddly small, and with a coloring that seemed to be more black and white, like a panda, more than any of the other bears he'd seen so far. That did take Tobio by surprise, admittedly, as it snored in what appeared to be a sturdy hammock strung up between two stalagmites.
Estimating just based on the raw size, it was only a little larger than Tekuno-sensei. For one of the bears around here, that seemed remarkably small, but Otso was approaching it with the kind of respect and reverence that one would only reserve for a respected figure. Or someone far and above stronger than them.
"When we wake the elder, be sure to be respectful," Otso rumbled. "Mind your etiquette with her. She's a touch old-fashioned, and always cranky, but the old woman knows a lot."
"How old is she?" Tobio asked.
"The oldest we can still rouse from hibernation, and thus, the keeper of the contract scroll." The large beast paused, before grumbling haphazardly underneath it's breath. "...She's still a pain in my haunches, though."
One gimlet eye cracked open from the panda's face, as her gentle swaying stopped, and an impossibly scrutinizing brown eye stared forth at them. "I heard that, brat."
Otso winced, hastily backtracking on the spot. "Er, I what I meant to say was-"
"Too late, I've already remembered it. Your insolence to your elders will be repeated in front of the ancestors, when I finally pass on," the elder spoke, before she turned her head to look at Tobio. Her voice was raspy and old, the kind of elderly snarl that came from being relatively as ancient as fucking dirt. It felt as if he'd been stripped bare just with a single glance, too, like that singular opened eye could derive all of his secrets with a glance. "Who's the runt?"
It was all he could do not to bristle at the insult. "I'm not a runt," Tobio insisted. "I'm perfectly normal for my age."
"That's what all runts say, innit?"
Tobio did his best not to think of awful, no good things about the elder that'd allow him to sign the scroll. Being able to freeze his facial muscles in place was a big help in that regard. Even if it didn't stop her words from spilling forth as she stared at his face, her own features scrunching up.
"Now you're trying not to think awful, no good things about me, just because I'll let you sign the scroll!"
Okay, that did get a reaction out of him, as he gawped at her. Otso could only give a low, disgruntled sigh as the elderwoman cackled like a witch. "Did you read my mind?!"
"No, no, this is just a thing she does, no matter how much she might try to bullshit you that she's read your mind," Otso denied, looking as if he was tired of it.
Still laughing, she slapped her stomach, looking positively pleased at the befuddled expression on Tobio's face. Her mouth bore a toothy grin, more than a few teeth missing, and what remained were yellowed and worn. "Kekekeke! You brats are a few centuries too young to think a thought I've never had in this old skull of mine! Now c'mere, boy. If Otso's bringing you here, there's only one reason. Let Granny Meng take a look at you."
With a pause, he shot the older bear a worried look. He only got a shrug from Otso in return as the bear nudged him forward with a meaty mitt, not giving away anything. Frustrating as it might have been, he'd have to follow the command. Ambling up to the woman, he felt her paw reach out and begin batting across his face, shoulders, and chest.
All the while, she nodded, as if it were confirmation of something that she could only see. "Mmm…yes…"
"Are you looking for something in particular, or-"
"Silence!" She hissed, slapping his shoulder brusquely. "I'm getting a feeling for things. You can't rush this. What's your name, anyway?"
"Tobio, Tobio Nak-"
Another slap to his shoulder, drawing a wince from him as she hit a tender bruise. "Didn't I say silence?!"
"You also said to tell you my name!"
A scoff came from her. "Excuses. I swear, the youth these days…" Eventually, her hand drifted up to his forehead, tapping his forehead protector with a surprisingly delicate touch. "Hmm. You'll need to get this adjusted when your rack comes in."
Excuse her?!
He opened his mouth to ask precisely what she meant by this, but decided he really didn't want to know. If memory served, all the old Summons were…on different levels of prophetic to some degree, or at least had significant amounts of uncanny insight. Usually, it was Tobio who had all the pervasive backstory knowledge. Being on the other foot for once was a bit uncomfortable.
When her paws retracted, though, the words that came out of her mouth did catch him off guard. "...You're a long way from home, too, aren't you?"
He stopped breathing, if only for a few seconds, as her second eye opened and peered at him. It was clouded over, but even so, Tobio felt like she could see him just fine with it. Or maybe something beyond that transitory flesh. The boy opened his mouth to say something, yet no words came out as his jaw worked back and forth.
"You've had to go through many trials and tribulations to get here. Give up bits and pieces of who you are, to change into something new." Her tone was growing more somber as she spoke, the remaining vestiges of humor beginning to seep out of her voice and posture. "Shedding that soft skin, blunt teeth, and supple paws for the hide of a true beast, bit by bit. Knowing full well that you'll never quite be who you were before."
Tobio felt like his vision was beginning to swim, even if he wasn't actually moving. His breath came out in short, panicked bursts, as his lungs worked back and forth. Just by putting voice to the most traitorous thoughts that he'd ever possessed, this old bear was about to throw him into a mild panic attack.
Wasn't that a bitch? Throwing himself into life-or-death situations wasn't a problem at all, but poke at his insecurities with disturbingly canny insight, and now he was about to freak out. It made him feel pathetic. Or maybe it was just the fact that for the first time in a long time, he was being seen in a way he couldn't just joke off. She could be way off, grasping at straws, with no idea of what she was talking about...yet he didn't think that was the case.
There were some secrets, some blunt admissions, that he could never truly admit. Never truly look too deep at it, lest he discover that he wasn't all himself anymore. Some of it he could revel in, like the confidence, pain tolerance, and overall cool ninja powers. His new life wasn't that bad when you only focused on the positives.
It didn't mean there weren't downsides. That he didn't think, sometimes, for fleeting moments, how fucked up it was to be a child soldier. Or when there were the briefest, foreign desires for blood, viscera, and gore that rose at the periphery of his senses, before being strangled into submission.
Whatever spiral he was threatening to fall into, what he hadn't expected were strong, soft arms to wrap around him. He was being pulled into Granny Meng's embrace, as if she wished to make all of his complicated thoughts slip away. It was the softest, snuggest hug he'd ever received, and it took everything in him not to immediately slump against her cuddly panda frame in that moment. "...Despite it all, you're still you, brat. I can tell that much. So stop thinking those complicated thoughts. It doesn't fit a hero like you."
The answer to his panic attack was apparently a soft hug from a geriatric panda. His life was too fucking weird these days to be believed. Was this what it meant to be stranger than fiction? Eventually, Granny Meng released him, though that feeling of being seen in a way no one else had managed didn't recede with his falling panic.
Especially when she stared at him for a few moments more with that serious, piercing stare of hers. Right up until she all but deflated on the spot, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh, as if she'd been defeated. "...Fine. I will admit, you did well finding this one and bringing him to me, Otso. He's got the right stuff."
"As if I would let any layabout this far into our territory," Otso huffed, looking mildly aggrieved.
"Damn ingrate, just take the compliment for what it is. And you!" She turned back to Tobio. "It's time to get you signed onto our contract. One moment…" He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, but he hadn't imagined that her paws would reach into her fur. It was rummaging around, out of sight, in a fashion that faintly reminded him of the concept of hammerspace. It was like a routine you'd see in a cartoon, rather than real life.
A comparison that was even more accurate when she pulled out a massive scroll from her fur, making him blink. Her pulling out what appeared to be an inkwell and a brush from the dense, black and white patterns on her body only added to his confusion.
"Where did it all come from?"
"Where did what come from?" Meng innocently asked, a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.
"..." He stared at her, and she stared back, an impossibly smug smirk on her face as she hopped off her hammock, beginning to roll out the massive scroll.
With a snort, Otso padded over a little closer. "As fun as it is to watch you toy with the boy, perhaps we should begin going over his responsibilities and expectations as a signatory to your contract."
"Bah! You ruin all my fun! Hastening my inevitable transformation to a fancy rock with all of this stress…" Meng grumbled before motioning for him to come closer. "We'll start with the basics, boy."
Pointing at the language on the scroll, it genuinely did take Tobio a moment to parse what he was looking at. But it did make a little more sense the longer that he peered at it. Summon contracts were weird in that the clan effectively gained a chakra signature of their signatory, which was how they could summon them and be summoned in turn. He suspected it tended to get a little fuzzy when it came to someone with multiple contracts, but that happened so rarely that it was unlikely to be an issue.
After all, most ninja never signed even one Summon Clan. How many actually managed to nab more than one in their lifetime? Tobio was willing to bet that in the entire history of the Elemental Nations, the number could be counted on one hand.
"As a signatory, you will be expected to assist us in our grievances when it comes to specific shinobi or Clans of note in the Elemental Nations," Meng explained, gently tapping a claw against the edge of the scroll. "Though this is within reason. Noncombatants bring no honor to slay, and thus will never be targets for our ire. It's more likely you'll merely have requests to slay the wielders of rival Summon contracts."
Honestly, all of that sounded perfectly normal to him so far, so Tobio nodded in agreement. "Got it. What else?"
"Not as much as you'd think. We're fighters, by and large, so the utility you might have received with other Clans will be admittedly lesser. BUT…" The old panda preened with no small amount of pride. "As your chakra grows, you'll be able to summon older and older bears, awakening those that remain for war. It's one of the few things that can wake those old bastards up, at least for a time."
He frowned. "Wouldn't they prefer to, like, I dunno, say goodbye to their friends and family?"
"If they're down here, they've already said their goodbyes," Otso chimed in. "It'll be fine."
"You can also summon other bears, smaller ones, too," Meng pointed out, before pausing and raising a claw. "In fact, your chakra reserves are impressive for a boy your age, but if you managed to summon anyone bigger than Otso within the next few years, I'd be shocked."
It wasn't an unfair thing to say, presuming that Tobio didn't somehow manage to increase his chakra reserves artificially. They were already pretty big for his age, but he wasn't Naruto, who could bring forth boss summons at the age of twelve. At the moment, he'd be lucky if he could even bring forth someone like Otso, and that was pushing things.
"Anything else I need to know?"
"Beyond that, you may receive specific requests or requirements on a bear-to-bear basis, but no," Otso shook his head. "It's been so long since we've had a contractor, I don't think any of us would have a reason to decline a summons, provided you have the chakra to pull us in."
"For now…" Meng looked at his wounds before bluntly grabbing her brush and swiping it across one of his open wounds. It tinged the bristles in his lifeblood as she pushed the handle into his grasp. "Sign. S'a good thing you were half-dead already."
Frankly, he didn't see much of a reason to deny her the request. It was the entire reason why he'd even come here. Refusing at this juncture would have been insane, so Tobio reached out to take the brush and begin to put his signature where he read the others. Most of them were old, in dialects or formations of the common language that were barely understandable to him, but that was just something that came with the passage of time.
One day, there'd be another signature on the Bear contract, when his own was aged and out of date. Pulling his brush back from the signature, he glanced back at the old woman. "That was a lot less dramatic than I was expecting."
She snorted, rolling her eyes at his response. "What, did you expect some sort of cosmic reward? Signing with our Clan ought to be reward enough."
"Well-" Tobio opened his mouth to speak, right as the System interrupted his words.
[HIDDEN QUEST COMPLETED: SIGN A SUMMON CONTRACT.]
[REWARD: 1x MODERATE ARTIFICE OR DOMINION PERK.]
Ah, there it was. He pushed down the immediate satisfaction that came with managing to knock out one last perk for this month, though a satisfied gleam shone through his eyes all the same. Something Granny Meng took note of, as her eyes narrowed at him.
"Something just happened, didn't it? You suddenly got an expression like a cub that broke into the honey stores."
He gave her a sheepish smile in return. "Something like that. It's a secret of mine I'm…not quite willing to share. Not yet." Maybe not ever.
"We're not asking you to bare your soul for us, cub," Otso reassured him. "Fight with us, be steadfast and a true warrior, and you'll never have problems with our kin."
That was a relief. It wasn't as if he didn't trust them, but…well, no, it was exactly that. The secret of the System would likely be something he'd take to the grave. Just letting even the merest hint of it out into the wild was bound to bring him nothing but pain. As the old saying goes, two people could keep a secret if one of them were dead. And this was a secret worth killing for.
"What's next?" He asked, glancing between the two of them.
"What's next is that you go home! You're still bleeding, bruised, and battered!" Otso demanded, reaching out with a heavy paw to poke his chest.
Tobio winced in admission and pain of that fact. "Alright, alright, fair enough."
"When you're recovered, we'll revisit the topic of seeing what we can teach you. Some of the techniques our Contractors can use, for example," Meng offered. And that was something he could prove genuinely excited for.
While not all of the Summon clans had useful shit, most of it was at least divergent or foreign enough to the Elemental Nations as to not be predictable. Or, reliant on specific combinations of summoner and summon to work, with the benefit of being exceedingly powerful in exchange. That was based on what he could remember from the anime and manga, anyway.
"I'm going to go get some rest, honestly," Tobio agreed. "And my sensei's probably beside himself with worry."
"Sounds like a good teacher," Otso rumbled.
"The best," Tobio happily agreed, smiling at the two bears. "I'll…see you guys later, I guess." It didn't take him that much longer to properly set up the seal to head back to Konoha, but it did feel as if there was a transition in his life at this moment. Or rather, a milestone.
He had a 'kekkai genkai', he had the Summon contract, and theoretically, he even had a Clan once he'd finished all that paperwork Hiruzen had thrown at him. It meant that more than anything, after all this time…he was starting to become someone in this new world of his. More than anything else, it felt as if the life he was living had a future in truth.
Maybe it always had, and he just didn't feel accomplished enough to realize it. Or perhaps on the wake of the Konoha Crush, Tobio was just feeling kind of introspective.
"You're something else," Tekuno huffed, as the two of them left the hospital. "I'm amazed you're still walking."
Personally, Tobio was a little surprised at that fact. The damage report had been extensive from what the medics had told him, but they'd pumped enough medicinal chakra into his body that he'd bounced back, more or less. Anything extra would heal in due time.
Or when he could sneakily use the Elixir, or Beniemiya. Either might do the trick to heal him up the rest of the way. Either way, he wasn't tremendously worried about the matter.
Tobio had bounced back from worse, and walked away tougher for the experience. "You know how sturdy I am."
"It's unusual by the standards of most shinobi," his sensei pointed out, as they walked along the cool Konoha streets. Night had come to pass by the time everything was wrapped up. "The vast majority don't have your durability or capacity to bounce back from damage. It's the reason why your whole deal is…such an oddity."
They were speaking evasively about the matter, but he knew what Tekuno meant. "As long as it keeps me alive, I'm not too chuffed about why it's one way or another."
A laugh rolled out of the older man. "It's just that simple?"
He hummed, giving the statement some genuine thought for a few moments, before he responded. "It can be. I think the world's a much simpler place than most people would like to admit. When you get past the superficial, complex reasons someone might spout for why they're doing, or why something is important."
"Color me envious," his sensei admitted. "I've got a tendency to overthink and introspect about a topic, over and over again."
Tobio shrugged. "It's probably that attention to detail that makes you such a good trapmaker. And such a good sensei."
He sighed, looking away bashfully. "Aiya, my students are too kind to their sensei! I've got to go finish up a report, though. You gonna be good for the rest of the way to your apartment?"
"I'll be okay, sensei," Tobio reassured him, smiling over at the man. "Go get a head start on whatever paperwork headaches I've given you."
"Oh? How magnanimous. I'll remember your generosity when I come by eventually to get you to finish your Clan paperwork."
Tobio's smile twitched. "A-Ah, let's not be too hasty, sensei."
"Too late! I'm penciling it into my schedule after the exams!" The man smirked before disappearing in a blur of speed, engaging his shunshin.
"…Shit," Tobio sighed. The thought of how annoying that paperwork was going to be filled the back of his mind, but he pushed it away. If he was still alive to worry about it, then that meant he was doing something right.
The walk home was largely filled with him pondering between the two choices for his awaiting perk, however. He could aim for Artifice, which did produce some outstanding options, or spring for Dominion. Neither of them was quite better than the other, just different. That knowledge didn't make the choice easier, though.
As much as Tobio did like Artifice, he was more willing to take a gamble on Dominion. It felt as if it might cover more of his vulnerabilities at the moment. Or, if he was lucky enough, provide something that could help his allies. A boy could dream, anyway.
Once he was in the safety of his apartment, he allowed that familiar latching sensation to spin forth into the void. And then, shudder as it brought itself back with new rewards.
Illusion of RealityBibliomaniaYou now have a very powerful and unusual ability based on the effects of your room. You can generate and manipulate vast illusions that are so realistic they can trick even low level supernaturally perceptive people completely even without subtlety and with it you could even trick illusion masters like Itachi Uchiha from Naruto, though probably only for a small time if you use just this. You are able to make massive illusions that target both the senses and world around you and are only limited by your imagination. More importantly you can create small illusions which can affect reality to a small degree causing real effects and sensation though no bigger than a horse in scale of effects. If you have other illusion abilities they get boosted by this and can easily become powerful enough to affect reality. It takes some focus but not a lot to use this. Also your illusions can be disrupted but only if you are disrupted/distracted and this ability itself can't stop people's movements, only trick them.Domain of the JumperSolo LevelingA good leader not only allows one's subordinates to perform better under a skillful direction, but the presence of a superior figure of authority can also help to raise and maintain the morale of the troops, allowing them to perform better and achieve feats that would otherwise be thought of as impossible as they surpass their previous limits.
Those fighting under you seem to go way beyond that. Similar to the skill that some Monarchs seem to possess, where they release their mana into area through a skill called the 'Domain of the Monarch' that severely increases the stats and morale of their descendant troops, you too can apply your mana to your surrounding area create this field.
After activating this ability, your troops will increase their stats by at least a fifty percent regardless of your power, but this bonus will increase the stronger you are. A National-Rank Hunter would be able to get a one-hundred percent increase, and a Monarch could get a two-hundred percent increase. The more powerful you are, the larger the area this ability will cover. For someone like the Shadow Monarch or the Monarch of Destruction, it could extend as far as all North America in a single release.Foresight EyeMushoku Tensei ~ Jobless Reincarnation ~The Foresight Eyes allows one to see into the future, seeing possible outcomes. It's difficult to control "focus point", which in this case means how far into the future one wants to see. The further one tries to see, the more outcomes are shown to them, but these outcomes become blurred together. However, if bought here you'll only see the one outcome that they would do within a maximum of ten seconds into the future.Alright. This wasn't a bad muster, but he figured it was appropriate to get a proper handle on what each perk did. Some of them were more obvious than others.
Illusion of Reality wouldn't just make him fairly capable at genjutsu, it'd massively increase his parameters with the field. It wasn't something he'd ever thought to specialize in, or explore all that much compared to burning people to death. With something like this, it might have even been worth trying to explore using it for something like that, though.
If he were being honest, the combination of this and Shadowfire felt like it could be exceptionally nasty. Setting someone ablaze without them even realizing they were dying. Difficult to pull off to be sure, but with the power of the System and all of his training boosters…not impossible, either. He just wasn't sure if it was the pick, out of the bunch that were offered. Not when the other options were just as enticing.
Domain of the Jumper was a very different kind of beast, as it was an objective boost in the capabilities of his allies. Hell, with enough juice, he could cover entire armies of shinobi at once. If things came to a head, with Kabuto managing to summon an army of undead ninja, the use case would be immense when it came to boosting the rest of their allies.
It might not have been what he'd been imagining in terms of qualitative improvements for his friends, but he'd take it as an option. Besides, Tobio wasn't entirely sure if he was remembering Solo Leveling correctly, yet he was fairly sure there was more to the domain than met the eye.
Foresight Eye was a very different kind of ability, in that it was a new flavor of magic eye bullshit. Being able to see ten seconds into the future didn't sound like much, but in a fight between shinobi, ten seconds was an eternity. It didn't mean he'd be able to dodge everything that came his way, admittedly, but it did mean he could at least see it coming. Or to react to attacks he shouldn't otherwise be able to predict, setting up perfect parries in the process.
Taking it might also make his eyes even more vaunted and desired, though. When their secret eventually got out, and it would, people would be hunting for magic eyes that gave you knock-off sharingan capabilities, along with fucking precognitive powers. In their cutthroat world, it was putting the kind of target on his back that couldn't be taken away, no matter how much he said the power wasn't inheritable, or otherwise transferable if someone tried to take his eyeballs.
Ultimately, Foresight Eye was delightful, and he would have taken it if the other options weren't objectively more useful. From what he could remember of Mushoku Tensei, though, Rudeus still got his ass beat plenty despite having a demonic eye. So, as cool as it was, he wasn't leaping to take it.
Meanwhile, Illusion of Reality was almost worth taking just based on the strategies he could envision with it. Creating illusory terrain that he could step off, functionally providing a limited form of flight or aerial mobility? Being able to punk out Itachi Uchiha alone, if only for a few moments, was almost worth taking it. Though a part of him did rebel at the notion of actually indulging that much in genjutsu or equivalents.
Maybe that was the bears whispering in his ear. Or perhaps it was just his consideration of the last perk that made him hold back from leaping for it.
There was some phrasing about Domain of the Jumper that Tobio didn't much like, for example, the fact that it seemed to be inclined toward people underneath him as underlings. However…he didn't much care anyway, mostly because the result was modified by a few different factors. If he couldn't use this on anyone in his Brotherhood, Tobio would eat his goddamn shoes.
And…he hadn't read much into the endgame of Solo Leveling, but he could have sworn a Monarch's Domain did more than boost a creature's power. Even if that was all it did, it'd still be worth it to have his friends improved by fifty percent.
With all of that meandering down, he decided to select Domain of the Jumper. And in that instant, he felt something settle inside of him, a new and foreign sensation. A rumbling deep within his core, in that hollow space he'd always suspected was his soul, but could never have properly confirm. The same hollow where his sword spirit dwelt, or the well of corrupted flame that made up his shadowfire.
AUTHORITY.
That was the best way he could translate the feeling to mortal thought. It was the knowledge that a Monarch's remit could be stretched forth from inside of him, bringing those who qualified into his dominion. To rule and direct, as he saw fit…
"Sic semper tyrannis."
The faint sound of his companion's voice, feather-light on his senses, did manage to make him blink. "What?"
There was a thoughtful hum that came from the oni girl, as he could practically feel her shifting to cross her arms. "Whatever you've just done…don't let it go to your head. I can feel it inside of you. That will to rule, unlike anything else you've ever had before. Just…keep it restrained."
Tobio had wanted to say that much wasn't true, but…that wasn't true. He did feel the inclination, under his skin, though he wasn't sure if he'd call it the need to be a tyrant. More like...that ambition, desire, and hunger for glory had finally been given a way to stretch out into the world around him. "…I'll keep it under wraps."
"Good. I wouldn't want you getting a big head, or I'd have to smack it down."
That got a snort out of the boy, as he kicked off his sandals. "Fair enough. I'll try to keep it wrangled." Between his bloodlust and his battle junkie tendencies, what was a bit of otherworldly narcissism to add to the pile?
For now…it was time to pass the hell out and get some rest.