join the Church of MissRaven and become a Sequence 9: Reader p atreon.com/KeyofStars for more chapters
The days of training lasted for nearly a month.
During this month, Kukaku made Ishikawa Katori understand what it meant to be true to her word; she said he couldn't leave the Ōkaku Training Hall, and he truly couldn't, forcing him to go a full month without seeing the sun.
It wasn't until his training results barely satisfied Kukaku, and Ishikawa Katori argued that he hadn't worked for a month and needed to earn money to live, that he was finally allowed to leave the Ōkaku Training Hall; as for Ganju… he was still in the sunless underground, wrestling with those 'special arenas.'
However, this month of training was extremely fruitful.
...
Name: Ishikawa Katori
Race: Human
Level: Stage Six
Physique: Beginner (243 / 500)
Spiritual Pressure: Intermediate (2840 / 10000)
Hakuda: Low Level (982 / 1000)
Shunpo: Low Level (843 / 1000)
Zanjutsu: Low Level (248 / 1000)
Zanpakuto: Not Activated (Activation conditions unknown)
Kido:
[Hadō]:
Low Level Hadō 'Numbers 1-29': Quantity (4) (↓ Expand for details)
Intermediate Hadō 'Numbers 30-59': Quantity (4) (↓ Expand for details)
[Bakudo]:
Low Level Bakudo 'Numbers 1-29': Quantity (5) (↓ Expand for details)
Intermediate Bakudo 'Numbers 30-59': Quantity (3) (↓ Expand for details)
High Level Bakudo 'Numbers 60-89': Quantity (1) (↓ Expand for details)
Special Techniques:
[Chantless Kido] Intermediate (28 / 10000)
[Kaido]: Low Level (64 / 1000)
[Post-chanting]: Low Level (354 / 1000)
Current Experience: 15000
↓ Expand to view Favorability interface.
...
Over the course of a month, Ishikawa Katori's fastest progress was undoubtedly in his spiritual pressure, which soared from less than one hundred proficiency to nearly three thousand proficiency.
Although his level hadn't changed, his strength had greatly improved.
If Ishikawa Katori's spiritual pressure a month ago barely met the standard of a Low Level Seated Officer, his current spiritual pressure has already surpassed most Low Level Seated Officers, infinitely approaching that of a weaker High Level Seated Officer.
However, this was Ishikawa Katori's own estimation, and he wasn't entirely sure how it would play out in an actual fight.
After all, the Seated Officers of the Gotei 13 were not like Daimaru, who had spiritual pressure but didn't know how to use it; anyone who could be promoted to a Seated Officer, except for a few with severe imbalances, even a Low Level Seated Officer, possessed a certain level of mastery in 'Zankensoki.'
Most importantly, whether High Level or Low Level Seated Officers, being able to use Shikai was the most basic requirement, and the diverse abilities of Zanpakuto could often allow the weak to defeat the strong.
This could be seen from the system's level evaluation.
Even though Ishikawa Katori's spiritual pressure was infinitely close to that of a High Level Seated Officer, his level remained in 'Stage Six,' which was equivalent to a Low Level Seated Officer.
However, for Ishikawa Katori, it wouldn't be difficult to advance to 'Stage Five,' equivalent to a High Level Seated Officer; he just needed to invest the remaining fifteen thousand experience points.
He had been supervised by Kukaku for this entire month, and to avoid exposing the system's existence, Ishikawa Katori had not used any experience points.
It wasn't that he didn't trust Kukaku, but because the system was his biggest trump card, no matter how much he trusted someone, he wouldn't let anyone detect this trump card, not even suspect it.
Therefore, aside from initially raising four Intermediate Kido to 'Intermediate,' Ishikawa Katori only invested over 500 experience points into [Chantless Kido] this month, where it wouldn't be noticed.
Now that Shiba Kūkaku was no longer supervising his progress daily, Ishikawa Katori naturally had no such concerns.
If he wished, he could use over seven thousand experience points to instantly raise his 'Spiritual Pressure' to 'High Level,' equivalent to the 'weakest Vice-Captain,' although it would just be an empty shell with spiritual pressure but no corresponding techniques, it would still qualify him to contend with a High Level Seated Officer.
Of course…
That only applied to normal High Level Seated Officers, as many 'unpromoted' monsters among High Level Seated Officers had battle power not inferior to a Vice-Captain due to various reasons.
Of course, that's not to say increasing spiritual pressure is useless.
Kukaku taught Ishikawa Katori many High Level Kido, but Ishikawa Katori didn't activate them, because after activating the only High Level Bakudo, 'Bakudo No. 61: Rikujokoro,' he found that his spiritual pressure could only reach the minimum standard for barely casting it, making it impossible to use in combat.
Even if he raised Rikujokoro to Intermediate now, it would be the same, because his spiritual pressure simply couldn't provide the spiritual pressure required for high-numbered Kido.
Based on Ishikawa Katori's observations in West 1 District over the past few years:
Shinigami of the Sixth Stage (Low Level Seated Officer) possess decent spiritual pressure, can Shikai their Zanpakuto, and can use Intermediate Kido below number sixty.
Shinigami of the Fifth Stage (High Level Seated Officer) possess very high spiritual pressure, can Shikai their Zanpakuto, and can use High Level Kido below number seventy, or are proficient in physical combat, Hakuda, and swordsmanship, and skilled in Shunpo.
From this, it's clear that to easily cast High Level Kido, he would need at least the spiritual pressure of a High Level Seated Officer.
So Ishikawa Katori's plan was…
To only raise his spiritual pressure to the level of a High Level Seated Officer, rather than instantly raising it to High Level, then save a small portion of experience points, and invest the rest into 'Shunpo,' 'Hakuda,' and 'Intermediate/High Level Kido,' so that the experience points could serve a greater purpose.
After all, experience points don't just unilaterally enhance one's self; they also act like a 'mentor,' imparting more knowledge to Ishikawa Katori, allowing him to continue training on his own even without experience points, rather than his strength stagnating without them.
This was a benefit absolutely unobtainable by investing all experience points into spiritual pressure, as there are only a few methods for spiritual pressure training, most of which Ishikawa Katori cannot yet use.
Even if he solely pursued spiritual pressure intensity, he wouldn't gain much training knowledge, and it would instead hinder the progress of other combat techniques.
Most importantly…
There was only one Shiba Kūkaku in Rukongai, and until he found other ways to gain large amounts of experience, he would revert to his previous state of only gaining a few thousand, or even a few hundred, experience points per year.
"Sigh, Kukaku-nee's favorability isn't increasing at all anymore."
If his big brother, Ganju-nii, could go to the higher-numbered districts a few more times, that would be great.
Ganju-nii, since you call yourself 'The Crimson Bullet of West Rukongai,' 'The person people most hoped would become the Big Brother of West Rukongai for 14 years,' 'The number one hater of Shinigami in West Rukongai,' etc…
How can you stand by and let those 'great villains' in West 80 District claim to be the strongest in West Rukongai?
However, Ishikawa Katori only thought about it.
After what just happened, if he were to go and instigate Ganju now, he would absolutely be slapped to death by Kukaku-nee.
Getting back to the point, Ishikawa Katori had already planned the allocation of experience points during this month of training, so after leaving the Shiba residence, he began to allocate them.
Spiritual pressure naturally needed to be increased, but not too much; Ishikawa Katori only invested '4160' experience points into spiritual pressure, just enough to reach '7000' proficiency, roughly equivalent to the middle tier of a High Level Seated Officer.
He then invested over 3000 experience points into Hakuda and Shunpo, bringing both techniques to the same Intermediate level (1500 / 10000).
Next, he selected 'Hadō No. 63: Raikōhō' from the unactivated Kido to activate, and immediately raised it to Intermediate, along with 'Bakudo No. 61: Rikujokoro.'
"Binding and offensive methods are now sufficient, but my defensive method is still only Bakudo No. 8, 'Seki.' Seki is suitable for use in close combat when paired with Hakuda, and it's worth raising to Intermediate."
"But it's not suitable for all situations. If the enemy has 'wide-range attack' abilities, I also need wide-range defensive methods."
Thinking of this, Ishikawa Katori carefully selected from the Kido and finally chose 'Bakudo Number Thirty-Nine: Enkosen.'
Unlike 'Seki,' which forms a palm-sized 'spiritual power shield' on the back of the hand, 'Enkosen' can form a circular protective shield in front of the caster, completely shielding the caster behind the 'spiritual power shield,' making it more suitable for defending against wide-range attacks.
Finally, Ishikawa Katori raised the newly learned 'Post-chanting' to Intermediate.
In fact, compared to Chantless Kido, Post-chanting is more practical. Although Ishikawa Katori's current 'Chantless Kido' has been raised to Intermediate, generally only Kido below number ten can unleash their full power when 'Chantless Kido' is used.
However, for an Intermediate Kido like 'Shakkahō,' to unleash its full power with Chantless Kido, it would need to be raised to at least 'High Level.' Simply put, [Chantless Kido] needs to be one level higher than the Kido.
[Post-chanting] is different; when used at the same level, it can unleash the full power of the Kido.
After allocating, his experience points directly changed from '15000' to '2000.' Ishikawa Katori decided to save these last two thousand experience points for now, to use when he encountered a bottleneck in his self-training.
With a massive investment of '13000' experience points, Ishikawa Katori's level finally reached Stage Five, equivalent to a 'High Level Seated Officer'!
join the Church of MissRaven and become a Sequence 9: Reader p atreon.com/KeyofStars for more chapters