"I swear, where am I supposed to get five hundred thousand?!" Ash exploded. "I only have 30,500 points! How do you expect me to find the rest?!"
He glared at the system interface, fuming. "Also—can I use my attribute points to upgrade abilities? Like I used them to upgrade the Mangekyō Sharingan?!"
"Affirmative. As long as the ability belongs to the host and is listed in the exchangeable skills, attribute points can be used for upgrades."
The system's response came flatly, ignoring his frustration entirely.
Ash nearly spat blood. "You… I wish you had emotions right now, just so I could actually feel satisfied yelling at you!"
Still, despite the irritation, a realization was dawning on him—a method he hadn't thought of in months, all this time within arm's reach.
"So how many attribute points do I need… to evolve it into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan?" Ash asked at last, his voice resigned. No point yelling anymore—it wouldn't help.
Ding~!
[Based on the host's current mental and physical stats, evolution to the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan requires 100,000 attribute points.]
"You're insane! I spent tens of thousands to evolve it to Mangekyō, and that only cost 5,000 points! This is a twenty-fold increase!"
Ding~!
[The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan is among the highest-ranked bloodline limits in the Naruto world. Once evolved, its power rivals that of first-tier Legendary Pokémon.]
[Base exchange cost for Mangekyō Sharingan is 700,000 attribute points. The host acquired it via lottery, thus gaining a heavy discount for the Eternal upgrade. Without that discount, evolving it manually would require at least three million points.]
Ash was stunned speechless. "...Fine. Just upgrade it already!"
Ding~!
[Upgrade initiated. Mutation probability:
→ 10%
→ 30%
→ 50%
→ 70%
→ 90%... Mutation reached.
Upgrade successful.]
As the system's chime faded, Ash felt a cold sensation in his eyes. His dark pupils shimmered, slowly shifting to a crimson hue. His vision cleared, sharper than ever before.
"Whoa… this feels amazing," he muttered, blinking. "I forgot what seeing clearly even felt like."
Some time passed as Ash tested his new vision and Sharingan. "So… Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu are gone, huh? But I've got something better. As expected of Uchiha Itachi. That guy really was a genius. It's a pity he awakened Mangekyō too early—his body couldn't handle the strain. If not, he could've surpassed even the Hokage."
Ash smiled faintly. Now, with the Eternal Mangekyō in his possession, he estimated his strength was easily on par with second-tier Pokémon—possibly even capable of clashing with high-tier Legendaries!
And the best part? No more blindness. The new Eternal Mangekyō had no side effects, and its chakra—or rather, its pupil power—could now regenerate over time. With enough rest, he'd be back to full strength after each use. Add to that the full-body support of Susanoo, and he could even go toe-to-toe with the top-tier Legendary Pokémon without fear.
Though Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were lost, Ash gained something new: a powerful illusion technique called Punishment.
Why "coherent illusion"? Because unlike Tsukuyomi, which only tortured the mind, Punishment caused the victim to feel all the pain in real life as well. Injuries in the illusion carried over to their actual body—like a cursed version of reality.
It was, in Ash's opinion, an evolved form of Tsukuyomi—one modeled after the concept of the Eighteen Hells. Perhaps after Itachi annihilated his clan, his guilt and self-hate manifested this technique deep in his soul… and now it had been shaped further by the red killing aura in Ash's blood.
"What was that red aura?" Ash wondered aloud. "Why did it mutate the Mangekyō?"
He asked the system too.
The system replied with three maddening words: "I don't know."
"…Great. Super helpful." Ash sighed. "Whatever. At least it doesn't seem to do anything weird other than mess with my emotions when I use the Sharingan. I'll deal with it later."
Even the system didn't know the source of the killing aura. That meant Ash had no leads either. All he could do was leave it be—for now.
Still, he couldn't complain.
"Feels good to be whole again…" he said, stretching lazily. "Haven't felt this relaxed in months."
"Hundreds of thousands of attribute points… Looks like evolving the Mangekyō into the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan won't be easy," Ash muttered with a wry smile, shaking his head. Still, now that he no longer had to worry about the side effects of the Sharingan, it was a relief.
He glanced at the clock by the bed. "It's already past midnight. I should go check on Alakazam."
After all, that poor Alakazam had taken a nasty hit during their earlier encounter. It was practically flattened by the backlash of his power-up.
When Ash arrived back at the battlefield, he was greeted immediately by Cynthia and Sabrina.
"Ash! How are you feeling?" Cynthia asked, concern in her voice.
Sabrina nodded beside her, quietly watching him.
"I'm alright," Ash replied, flashing them a relaxed grin. "I'd say I had a lucky break. My psychic abilities have improved, the side effects from using the Sharingan have decreased a lot, and my eyesight is completely restored. No more worrying about going blind."
His smile was full of satisfaction—genuine and bright.
"How's Alakazam?" Ash asked next, shifting his attention to Brock, who had been tending to the Psychic-type.
"It's stabilized," Brock reported. "But the damage was pretty severe. After it went berserk, its latent potential was pushed too far, and the backlash really hurt its body."
"Will it affect future battles?"
"Don't worry," Brock reassured. "It just needs time to recover. A week or so and it'll be back in shape."
Ash nodded. Even if things had been worse, he had Full Restore Capsules in reserve. No matter how much Alakazam had pushed past its limits, it was still within the Champion-tier range—and originally, it was only Elite-class. That gap mattered.
With that handled, things progressed more smoothly. Ash earned the Gem Badge without issue, and Cynthia also reached an agreement with Sabrina about working together.
Ash didn't know exactly what those two discussed, but he didn't object. If anything, he felt Sabrina had changed for the better—and he had a good feeling about her now.
...
TN:
⚡ Pa-treon-com/LordMerlin