Perfect Sage State

Walking through the passage, it wasn't long until Shiki was met with his second trial when a much younger looking beauty appeared in front him, floating in the air.

"Well, well! First was a beauty, now there's a cutie! You want to play with me as well little snake?" Shiki asked teasingly.

"Hahahahaha!" The snake loli laughed like child but still with elegance before introducing herself.

"I'm Ichikishimahime and I do want to play!" She said in a playful tone.

"Well then, what's the game?" Shiki asked in turn.

"Mhm! You're definitely my favourite human to have entered our home!" Ichikishimahime exclaimed as the surroundings began to change.

"See that wall over there?" She pointed to wall with several slots with different shapes.

"If you can fill in all the holes with the stones laying around in this cave, you can leave and continue onwards."

"Hmm. Although it pains me to leave such pleasant company behind . . . I do have a reason for being here so maybe I'll spend some more time with you later . . ." Shiki relaxedly said, only to be met with mischievous laughter.

It seemed the snake beauty appreciated his words.

With his White Eye of the Kagura, Shiki instantly found all of the stones to fill the proper slots and with a mass of chakra strings, he picked them all up and slotted them at the same time leaving only one hole.

Picking up another stone, he broke in two and filled the remaining slot completing his trial in record time, leaving to shocking snake loli with her mouth in an O shape.

"So . . . Where too?" Shiki asked, bringing Ichikishimahime out of her trance.

"Ah, that way." She said absentmindedly but as Shiki walked away she called out to him.

"Good luck! If you survive the rest, be sure to visit me again." She cutely shouted.

"We shall see!" Shiki replied without turning back as he moved forward through the tunnel into a misty cave with barely any visibility.

It was then he sensed something sneaking up to him. He knew it was part of the trials but he was not one to simply let someone get the drop on him.

Instantly turning around, he caught the lunging snake lady by her neck as he said in a low, teasing voice.

"You're certainly not as courteous as the other two my third beautiful host . . ."

He then let her go and allowed her to talk.

"And it seems that you're a far cry from the humans that previously have visited this place . . ." She replied.

"But without facing the test of I, Tagitsuhime, there's no going further." She continued.

"Fine then! Bite away." Shiki said as he turned his head revealing his neck for her to bite.

This sort of attitude certainly shocked Tagitsuhime and left her with a blank mind. This human was certainly not what she expected . . . In more ways than one.

Seeing that she kept in place, Shiki decided to tease Tagitsuhime once more.

"No need to be shy beautiful. I promise not to bite back~"

*Puchi* Tagitsuhime failed to completely hold in a laugh.

"Then I shan't hesitate further."

And so, she bit into Shiki's neck however . . . Nothing happened.

Well, Shiki was sort of expecting it, this kind of thing had a truly low change of affecting him anyway.

"Does this mean I pass?" He asked.

"I-I guess?" Tagitsuhime answered not really sure herself.

But then, she received mental communication from the White Snake Sage herself the she would receive the human and so she led Shiki to the sage and told him to enter the nearby hall.

"See you again beautiful." Shiki flirted as entered, leaving Tagitsuhime behind who went to gossip with her sisters about the very interesting and attractive human that had visited their home.

Walking into the hall, Shiki spotted the White Snake Sage in its true form.

'Looks like she didn't bother to disguise herself as an old woman like Boruto . . .'

"Why did you come here human? I sense you already have sage power. Originating from this place too, I might add . . ." She slowly said.

"To learn proper senjutsu and thus make the most of this gift." Shiki replied.

"I see . . . Usually I test someone to see if they can control nature energy before trying to teach them but it your case, sine you already have, it would be a pointless exercise . . . You have passed all the trials with flying colors as well so . . . I shall accept your request and teach you the ways."

"Thank you sage." Shiki respectfully replied with a slight bow.

And so, his training began, days passed with Shiki using the small breaks given to him to go int Yomi and take advantage of the accelerated time to further his comprehension. Unfortunately, trying to absorb nature energy inside the land of the dead was quite useless.

The three snake sisters seemed to be quite taken with him though and all insisted on forming summoning contracts with him, to which Shiki didn't really have any reason to refuse.

The White Snake Sage praised Shiki as its best student, learning how to wield the power of senjutsu and sage mode faster than anyone ever had before him.

Now, Shiki was attempting to use the power inherently present in Ryuchi cave to perfectly fuse his Sage Mode and Sage Transformation rather than simply overlap them, as well as perfectly integrating this new power onto himself.

It seemed that sages from the Ryuchi Cave who are most successful tend to develop draconic characteristics, like Kabuto and Mitsuki . . . Ryuchi literally meant Ground Dragon after all. What Shiki wanted however was to go beyond that.

He wanted to soar into the skies and become a True Dragon instead. He didn't have to do it in Ryuchi Cave even if the environment was favorable though.

It was just that if he returned right now he would be forced to postpone this to go on vacation and he really wanted to get it done.

'To think I'm actually opting to further extend my training instead of spending a vacation banging a bunch of hot girls . . . What the hell is wrong me?'

Despite thinking this, his plans remained the same, become dragon first, bang girls later.

Shiki had complete grasp of his Sage Transformation already and he could manipulate his body in various ways once he transformed which combined with the Shikotsumyaku kekkei genkai meant he could do some very fun stuff . . . Or reproduce scenes from various horror movies.

All of his abilities were blended together since his Soul Transmutation and it showed in the thorough way Shiki's body was improved. All of his senses, his dense and resistant bones his highly strong, flexible and high quality dense muscles, his though yet smooth and elastic skin . . .

What Shiki wanted to do was incorporate Sage Mode and Sage Transformation into his natural state without changing his appearance to much much be still be capable of shapeshifting if required. A permanent Perfect Sage State.

It took him awhile but he succeeded for the most part. Mostly due to Shiki's enhanced mind that was capable of processing enormous amounts of information in a short time, especially if he linked with his soul clones.

Also, as Shiki's knowledge and experience increased, he started to be able to extrapolate things even when dealing with unfamiliar territory and since sage power was not completely unfamiliar to him since he had quite a bit of time to practice Sage transformation.

Now it looked like Shiki had eyeliner on, not as pronounced as Orochimaru's or even Naruto's but it could be clearly seen. the area is covered became larger if he drew upon more Sage power though and the marks extended across his body like circuits if he drew upon it even more.

He could also shapeshift and grow wings like Anko or chakra thrusters and cannon like Jugo in the original series. Two horns naturally grew on his head but he could conceal them with spashifting, they would come out if he drew on his sage power though.

Alas, Shiki's ambition to become a dragon had yet to come into fruition but he did succeed in transforming into a massive White Horned Snake so it was a start. Dragon form was just around the corner, he was sure of it.

After he revealed his newfound ability to become a giant snake as he pleased, the Snake Sisters became even more interested in him but he had procrastinated for far too long, it was time for a nice vacation with the girls and to just relax and enjoy life for once.

'I deserve it, the girls deserve it so let's do this! Enjoying a true paradise for a couple of days . . .'

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.