The next morning began in routine fashion—chakra warm-ups, light drills, and a reminder from Kaida-sensei to stay hydrated. But Rai had a different plan.
Today, he was going to test his monsters—systematically.
La Jinn. Kuriboh. Masked Dragon. Each one felt different to summon. Not just in chakra cost, but in weight, in intent. There was something beneath the numbers, and today he intended to find it.
"Sensei," Rai said as the group stretched near the open field. "Can we use the reinforced training dummies today?"
Kaida raised a brow. "You planning to break them?"
"Not yet," he said. "Just want to see how hard my cards actually hit."
Daiki smirked. "About time we get some fireworks."
Kaida gave a short nod. "Alright. Set up three of them across the field. We'll rotate attacks."
Rai walked across the grass, laid out his chakra, and summoned his first partner.
"Masked Dragon."
The sleek, crimson-scaled dragon surged into view with a low growl, nostrils flaring. Its form looked even more defined now, its tail flicking with a snap of heat. That was the first thing Rai noticed—it was easier to summon than before. More cooperative. Less draining.
"Target: left target dummy."
Kaida's voice rang from across the field. "The target dummy is reinforced with standard ironwood and chakra padding. Simulates mid-tier defensive jutsu. Let's see what it does."
Rai nodded. "Masked Dragon, go."
The creature surged forward, wings flaring wide, then slammed headfirst into the dummy with enough force to split the outer layer and buckle the frame. The wood cracked; not cleanly, but enough to rattle its base.
Kaida stepped forward and made a quick assessment.
"Some damage. Maybe equivalent to a strong taijutsu blow from a Genin with chakra reinforcement."
Rai closed his eyes.
Masked Dragon = strong Genin tier.
He turned to Kaida. "La Jinn next?"
Her brow lifted slightly. "Let's see it."
Rai steadied his stance. This one was still costly, still a bit unwieldy to summon—but the power was clear.
"La Jinn, the Mystical Genie of the Lamp."
The green-skinned warrior appeared in a swirl of smoke, arms crossed, muscles coiled like corded steel.
Rai pointed to the second dummy.
La Jinn dashed forward and struck, palm-first. The entire upper half of the dummy caved in with a crunch, fragments of wood flying across the grass.
Even Daiki whistled. "Okay… yeah. That's a step up."
Kaida nodded. "Definitely Chunin-level strength. Maybe low-Jonin if focused."
Rai logged it mentally.
La Jinn = mid-Chunin to low-Jonin tier.
The final test was the weakest, but Rai still needed to know.
"Kuriboh."
The fuzzball emerged with a bounce and cheerful chirp. It hovered awkwardly for a moment, then flung itself headfirst into the final dummy.
Boop.
Nothing.
The dummy wobbled slightly.
Kaida tried not to laugh. "...Equivalent to a thrown acorn."
Daiki burst out laughing. Reina just smiled behind her gloves.
Rai gave a nonchalant shrug. "Not everything's about raw force."
Still, it confirmed something.
Kuriboh = non-combatant without enhancement.
Kaida stepped in front of the group.
"This was useful," she said. "You're getting a better grasp of how your cards perform in real conditions."
Rai nodded, the internal chart forming.
Kuriboh (300 ATK): negligible.
Masked Dragon (1400 ATK): Genin tier.
La Jinn (1800 ATK): Chunin+ tier.
The numbers weren't exact, but they helped. And the difference wasn't just in attack—it was in mass, pressure, aura. Chakra made these things real.
He glanced at Kaida.
"How would these compare to, say… an A-rank summon?"
Kaida tilted her head, thoughtful. "Depends. A full-sized contract summon is a chakra monster, yes—but it's also alive. It has its own chakra pool and will. Most of your cards feel like condensed versions—much smaller, but also drastically cheaper to summon. Maybe one-tenth the chakra of a full contract beast, if that. But there's a tradeoff."
She gestured to La Jinn's fading form.
"A real summon can fight on its own, sustain itself, even make decisions mid-battle. Your monsters… they're sentient, sure—La Jinn waiting on your signal proved that—but they're still tethered to you. They follow your intent. The moment your chakra stops flowing, they vanish. They're not comrades in the traditional sense—they're chakra constructs shaped by will."
That… made sense.
They weren't full-scale beasts. But they could fight like them—for ten seconds, a minute, longer, depending on the flow of chakra. That, too, had tactical value.
Kaida clapped once.
"Good progress. Tomorrow, we'll shift focus. You've got five days of training left before the real assessment."
Rai turned that over in his mind. The equivalent of the bell test, she'd said. No punishment for failure, but a true evaluation of what they'd become.
He looked at his cards floating in his peripheral chakra field. The Reliquary shimmered faintly.
His deck was growing.
His strategy was forming.
And now, he had a baseline for what his monsters could do.