The main dojo of the Oboro clan was a temple to pain and discipline.
Black cedar wood and hardened tatami floors. The space vibrated with the echo of war cries and the clash of wooden weapons.
Ryuu entered at dawn. His grey main branch uniform fit his body perfectly.
The disciples' looks of contempt pricked his back. There were a dozen of them, between ten and twelve years old.
"The trash arrived early," Kenji muttered, a stocky boy from the back section. "Looking for the way to the infirmary, pariah?"
Ryuu ignored the words. He walked to the center of the dojo and sat in the seiza position.
His eyes fixed on the void. Thanks to **[Pain Nullification]**, the cold of the tatami arrived as a mere thermal data point.
"Stand up!" a voice thundered.
Instructor Sato entered the room. Scars on his knuckles and hawk-like eyes. He stopped in front of Ryuu with a gesture of repulsion.
"The Patriarch mentions an 'improvement'," Sato said. "We will see if your bones can withstand your luck. Five thousand thrusts! Begin!"
Ryuu lifted the wooden sword. The weight of the wood was insignificant for his current attributes. His muscle fibers, reconstructed by **[Tissue Recomposition]** and nourished with spirit meat, vibrated with a hidden density.
The exercise began.
By the thousandth thrust, sweat soaked their uniforms. By two thousand, Kenji's arms were trembling. By three thousand, the dojo was a concert of heavy gasps.
Ryuu kept moving. His pace was steady, mechanical.
His Level 2 constitution processed the effort without breaking a sweat. It wasn't endurance; it was pure biological superiority.
"Faster!" Sato struck the floor with his staff. "This is training, not a parade!"
Sato launched a sudden strike to Ryuu's ribs. The impact sounded dry, like wood hitting hard stone.
Ryuu took the hit without flinching. His tissues absorbed the force without his core moving a single millimeter. Pain didn't even cross his mind.
Sato lowered his staff. His eyes narrowed. He had struck hard enough to break ribs, but the boy was a wall.
"Enough," Sato said. "Rest. Young master Ryuu seems to have energy to spare. Kenji, show him why the main branch demands more than just taking hits."
Kenji smirked. He took his wooden sword and stepped into the center.
[Target Identified: Kenji][Rank: F (Level 2)]
The level parity in the system was only numerical. Ryuu knew his foundation was qualitatively superior.
"I'm going to break your bones, pariah," Kenji whispered.
Kenji attacked. His movement was fluid, a series of diagonal slashes towards the blind spots.
Ryuu activated his technique.
"Shadow Steps."
His feet glided over the tatami with an unnatural fluidity. He left a wake of movement that froze Kenji's smile.
Silence took over the dojo. Sato took a step forward, his jaw tight.
Seeing **[Shadow Steps]** in an eight-year-old was incredible. It was a technique that even adults took years to master with that level of cleanliness.
Kenji launched a desperate thrust. Ryuu blocked it with a minimal side movement, leveraging his Level 2 strength.
Kenji's wooden sword flew out of his hands, hitting the back wall with a loud crash.
Ryuu hadn't even broken a sweat. He stared at Kenji, who was trembling while looking at his own reddened hands.
"Is that all the main branch's Level 2 has to offer?" Ryuu asked with a cold voice.
"Enough!" Sato intervened. His voice had a note of respect hidden behind the severity. "Withdraw. We'll start again at dawn."
Ryuu left the dojo. The students whispered among themselves as they avoided his path, casting looks heavy with an uncomfortable strangeness; he was no longer the weak child they could ignore.
He headed to Jiro's library. Ryuu walked in silence, eyes fixed forward, ignoring the murmur of the wind through the bamboos.
He entered the enclosure carpeted in dust and ancient paper. Jiro looked up from a yellowish tome, observing Ryuu's intact uniform despite coming from the main dojo.
"You have returned early, young master," Jiro said with insight, as if trying to read him thoroughly.
Ryuu did not answer. He crossed the threshold in silence, allowing the smell of old parchment and wax to replace the stench of sweat from the dojo. His steps were inaudible on the frayed rugs.
In the distance, Jiro rested his head on a thick tome, closing his eyes. His breathing became heavy, rhythmic, as if sleep had overcome him. Ryuu was not fooled. He knew the old man was a shadow of the Patriarch. His enhanced senses or mana control probably allowed him to map every movement of the child without needing to open his eyes.
He walked towards the deepest sections, where shadows thickened under the shelves of black cedar. He wasn't looking for history or geography. His fingers traced cracked leather spines, searching for something that would complement his current physical density.
His Level 2 constitution was a powerful engine, but the mana flow still felt like a wild river after his recent reconstruction. The Yang energy from the spirit meat still vibrated under his skin, demanding a firmer channel. He needed structure.
He kept searching, ignoring any presence in the library. His eyes, sharpened by his new perception, filtered through hundreds of useless books until they stopped at the back of a rotten wooden drawer. There, he found a small volume bound in beast skin. The title was almost erased: **[Shadow Marrow Refinery: Fragment]**.
[Item Identified: Shadow Marrow Refinery (Incomplete)][Description: Cultivation method that utilizes bone and muscle density to compress mana.][Status: Requires Rank F (Level 2) for basic assimilation.]
It was perfect. Not a complete manual that would make him invincible overnight, but it was the foundation he needed to strengthen his core using his reinforced body.
Before leaving, Ryuu immersed himself in other texts, more mundane but vital. He retreated to a secluded corner of the library, where a worm-eaten wooden bench was hidden behind a curtain of dust and shadows. There, under the dim light of an oil lamp, he spent hours devouring chronicles on the formation of the continent and theoretical treatises on the nature of mana.
He discovered that mana, often referred to as the "Primordial Breath," manifested in two polarities: Yang and Yin. According to the treatises, these forces were inherent to beasts, in whom the flow was chaotic and purely natural. While humans focused on the use of mana and the perfection of martial arts, only creatures that managed to evolve and achieve human-like intelligence could refine these energies to cultivate them with method.
His clan, the Oboro, were an exception among men: masters of Yin who used darkness as an extension of their will. They were not exempt from the use of mana—his recent physical reconstruction was proof of that—but rather, Yin represented the technical specialization of their lineage.
With his mind saturated with data on the politics of the great clans and the mechanics of spiritual energy, Ryuu concealed the volume under his uniform. He had no intention of sharing his find.
He left the library without looking back. Silence was his only confidant.
That night, under the light of a single candle, Ryuu initiated the assimilation of the fragment.
[Technique Study in progress...][Progress: 5%... 15%...]
The shadow of his body on the wall seemed denser, heavier. Winter continued to strike the walls, but inside the child, a new type of cold began to crystallize.
[Side Mission in progress: The Path of the Shadow][Objective: Stabilize the Marrow Core and refine the Mana flow.][Note: The assimilation of this technique will allow the completion of the repair of the damaged constitution.][Reward: 60 SP + Stamina and Mana Control Boost.]