Chapter 5: Purple Entry Senjutsu, Breakthrough Unlocks New Function

"Was I too rough?"

Meanwhile, having just put the furniture back in place, Roy felt a pang of regret.

Caught up in the moment, he'd forgotten to hold back and let Koneko win once.

A sparring partner as good as her was hard to come by—scaring her off would be a problem.

"I'll buy her some desserts tomorrow as an apology."

Deciding this, Roy opened his attribute panel.

After defeating Koneko, he'd earned a purple entry.

[Senjutsu (Purple): A technique for manipulating the flow of life energy. With deep mastery, it can be applied in many fields.]

Good stuff.

Roy's eyes lit up as he equipped the new entry.

But then, a prompt appeared.

[Current entry slots are full. Consume 10 White entries or 1 Green entry to unlock a new slot?]

"Five slots is the limit?"

Roy scanned his entry panel and removed [Spiritual Vision].

Though both were White entries, [Don't Underestimate the Middle-Aged] boosted his training speed.

Plus, based on Roy's understanding of Senjutsu, one of its core abilities was perception.

With Senjutsu, Spiritual Vision was redundant.

Equipping [Senjutsu], Roy immediately sensed a faint energy deep within his body.

This "ki" was the root of life force, normally hidden in unexplored regions of the human body.

The stronger one's physique, the more potent their ki.

Using Senjutsu, Roy tapped into his ki for the first time, experimenting with its applications.

The night passed quietly, and morning arrived.

Roy sat cross-legged on his bed, a soft white glow enveloping him.

The light flowed like a gentle spring, seeping into his meridians, slowly unlocking his body's potential.

After an unknown time, Roy's eyes snapped open, exhaling a puff of white vapor.

A crackling sound echoed from his body as his muscles visibly tightened, glowing faintly.

"Not bad. Better than I expected."

A satisfied smile spread across Roy's face.

This was the result of a night spent studying Senjutsu.

Senjutsu manipulated the root of life energy. Beyond perception, it could condition the body and tap into hidden potential.

For ordinary people, with limited potential, Senjutsu's effects were modest.

But Roy, with his boundless potential, saw massive gains even from basic use.

One night's progress rivaled days of prior training.

"With Senjutsu, I can stay energized without sleep."

"Training physically while using Senjutsu to unlock potential—my strength will grow even faster."

[Ding! Host's strength has broken through to Level 2, unlocking the Entry Upgrade function!]

A new prompt sounded.

"Finally a breakthrough."

Pausing his morning run plans, Roy opened the panel to explore the new function.

The feature was straightforward: spend ten entries of the same tier to upgrade an entry's quality.

Take last night's Senjutsu, for example.

Senjutsu was a Purple entry.

By consuming ten Purple entries, Roy could upgrade it to Red.

He wasn't sure what specific changes would occur.

But higher entry quality always meant stronger effects.

"New slots need entries, upgrading entries needs entries—this is practically begging me to fight and farm more."

Roy closed the panel and headed out for his morning run.

Morning training came first.

…

With plenty of prime targets at school, Roy didn't skip class and attended the full day.

After school, he made his way to the first-year classrooms.

"Koneko, a sen delirium awaits."

Koneko, about to head to her club, turned toward the doorway.

"Roy-senpai? What brings you here?"

"To keep yesterday's promise, of course."

Roy handed her the desserts he'd bought earlier.

"…Thanks."

Koneko hesitated but accepted them.

Though Roy had pushed her to her limit yesterday, she'd reflected and realized it wasn't his fault.

He'd summoned her to find a real sparring opponent.

As the summoned devil, she'd failed to meet his expectations, which was her own shortcoming.

"Koneko, can you help me with something?"

Koneko's expression flattened. "Senpai, it's after hours."

"Cough, you've got it wrong. I'm not asking to fight you."

"…To fight other devils?"

"Sharp guess."

Roy gave a thumbs-up. "You must have other colleagues, right? Can you recommend a few?"

No way.

Koneko nearly refused, but Rias's words from yesterday flashed in her mind.

Swallowing her refusal, she hesitated for two seconds before replying.

"I can't decide that myself, but if you have time, I can take you to meet the President."

"That'd be great."

Roy agreed.

Following Koneko, they headed to the second floor of the old school building.

Pushing open a door labeled [Occult Research Club], Koneko led the way inside.

"President, I've brought Roy-senpai."

Only Rias and Akeno Himejima were in the clubroom; Yuuto Kiba was absent.

At the sound, both turned their attention to Roy.

After sizing him up, Rias stood and greeted him.

"Roy-kun, welcome to the Occult Research Club."

"I'm the club president, Rias Gremory."

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