『Felix Karl Grimm』
"Grimm, I am asking one last time. Are you really sure about this?"
"Yes, yes, and yes. Megumi, do you really think I'll get killed by anything below Tiger Funeral? Besides, Gojo-sensei is right there."
"I am right here!"
Megumi gave me an exasperated look as he stood in front of me in the largest training grounds in school with Gojo standing to the side, watching an expectant expression. On the other side, sitting in the peanut gallery were Nobara and Maki. Panda and Inumaki were on a mission while Yuji was getting some field lessons from another sorcerer.
Although maybe I should say only one person was watching me? Ever since walking in on me in bed with Nobara, Maki couldn't look me in the eyes.
Sighing, I stretched my arms before throwing my jacket to the side and drawing my sword, or more like Megumi's sword that I borrowed. It was a saber-like sword with a black blade. Slowly, I edged out my Ki while he finally relented.
"Fine, we'll start from the latest Shikigami I have yet to subjugate, Max Elephant. Ready?"
That's right, I was here to test out my method for Ticket Farming. Aka, the 10 Shadows Technique of Fushiguro. Since he wouldn't be losing his Shikigami when I killed them, he lost nothing by letting me go to town on them other than maybe his pride in his technique and manhood.
"Ready."
Without another word said, Megumi brought his hands together and summoned Max Elephant with a hand sign. The air rippled for a moment before a shadow manifested itself and took the form of a massive pink elephant that looked like it just crawled out of a medieval ceremony with the ornaments on its body.
"Max Elephant!"
"Phrrrr!!!"
The beast raised its front high before reeling its trunk back and letting off a massive torrent of water like a tsunami towards me, not even regarding Megumi as a threat and focusing solely on me.
Not wasting any time, I lunged forward and jumped, dodging the cascade of water and coming down on the Elephant with the blade secure in my hands. With one smooth motion, I plunged the blade into the Max Elephant's skull, the Ki coating the blade made it go in like a knife into raw chicken. Piercing the skull and the brain in one go.
"Phrrr..."
With one last whimper, the beast collapsed and turned into shadows once more as Megumi breathed out a sigh of relief. That was almost too easy.
"One down."
Feat Achieved! Defeat Max Elephant
+1x Bronze Ability Gacha Ticket
I snatched the ticket floating on the water and tore it without hesitation.
Rolling Bronze Ability Gacha...
A Common Ability!
[Induce Lactation]
|Common Ability|
Allows you to induce lactation on targets in your line of sight, provided they have the biological capability to produce it.
Well that's useles-
Mmm Milk. My trait.
I can feel my neurons activating this very instant. How the fuck did this happen!? What is this coincidence!? Did the Patron plan this!?
Regardless of that, this was undoubtedly something incredible that I'd keep in my pocket.
"What'd ya get?"
Gojo asked as he snacked on some salty chips he pulled out of nowhere and I shook my head.
"Nothing. Next up, the rabbits."
"Seriously what was-"
"I SAID NEXT!"
Megumi sighed and shrugged his shoulders before forming the hand sign.
"Rabbit Escape!"
Megumi's shadow boiled as if it were made of liquid before a massive, and I mean massive horde of bunnies rushed forth from it, such a large and dense wave that they resembled more like a white tide than individual creatures.
"Fushiguro, back away."
Hearing the seriousness behind my words, he jumped back, and I took the opportunity to put the plan that I concocted ahead of time into action. With a snap of my fingers, a vast barrier appeared around me, swallowing the bunnies inside and preventing any from escaping and multiplying.
The rabbits reached me and started biting and kicking me to no avail, my body was like a steel wall thanks to my Ki. Instead of punching them away, I spread my arms and unleashed Ember.
Wooosh!
Dark purple flames with incredible heat fueled by my Ki burst forth from my body, incinerating the Rabbits, and the Barrier both prevented any attempt at escaping and turned the entire place into a blast furnace. It only took 10 seconds to turn all the rabbits into ash. Feeling just a bit winded, I let down my barrier and gestured to Gojo who threw me a bottle of milk that I uncapped and chugged to recover my energy.
"Phew! That's two down."
Feat Achieved! Defeat the Rabbit Escape
+1x Advantage Bronze Trait Gacha Ticket
Ooh, nice, traits were always useful unlike Abilities, well, unless I rolled trash anyway. I grabbed the ticket from the ashy ground and tore it in half.
Rolling Bronze Trait Gacha with Advantage...
[Minty Breath]
|Trash Trait|
No more bad breath, your breath always smells fresh and minty regardless of what you ate beforehand.
or
[Firestarter]
|Common Trait|
You are a novice firestarter, you are slightly more resistant towards Heat and fire-based effects, and your fire-based abilities and spells are slightly more efficient.
Considering how I just took out those rabbits, Firestarter was the obvious choice. If I want minty breath, I can just eat mints.
When I chose Firestarter, I felt my connection to Ember strengthen, and conjuring a candle flame on my finger felt easier. Not a notable change considering this was in the end a common trait but it was pretty good.
"Alright, next! Which one is it?"
"Round Deer. Ready?"
I cracked my neck and held my blade tight, this one could be problematic. My Ki was like the pinnacle of Cursed Energy while the Round Deer's whole schtick was using Positive Energy. But then again, it couldn't use its ability without healing me.
Seeing me nod, Megumi created his hand sign and summoned the deer forth.
"Round Deer!"
And what a deer it was, it looked almost-alien like and stood taller than even a moose. It stared at me blankly while emanating a white aura from its body that made me feel like my Ki was not cooperating with me. But other than that, it didn't move.
But, well, killing it was weird. It didn't really do much other than just constantly use Reverse Cursed Technique. Even as I hurt it, it healed from my hits quickly, but it also couldn't hurt me since it passively healed me. Eventually, I managed to land a blow deep enough into its brain that it collapsed, but it did not feel satisfying.
"That really wasn't all that glorious, seemed to me like you were just killing an innocent animal. Do you really get a feat for that?"
Gojo commented while chewing on a takoyaki, getting an annoyed response from Megumi who snapped at him.
"The Round Deer is not helpless, most users of 10 Shadows would have their technique forcefully dispelling after spending too long near it. You need to be able to kill it quick enough to prevent that. But when dealing with other people who do not need that, it falls short. Now, do we do the next one or not?"
Yikes, he sounds really heated. Is he that big of a fan of Round Deer?
"Gimme a sec, lemme see the ticket."
Feat Achieved! Defeat the Round Deer
+1x Silver Item Gacha Ticket
Grabbing the ticket from my hair I tore it in half without any preamble. My luck with Item's wasn't the greatest.
Rolling Silver Item Gacha...
An Uncommon Item!
[Sanctus - Dark souls]
|Uncommon Item|
Dark Souls - A legendary weapon of the Way of White, granted to an Undead paladin long ago. Once blessed with the protection of a white flame, but its power has all but faded, so now all that remains of it is providing its wielder slight regeneration.
Appearing in my hands was a golden shield with several inlaid green gems and white stripes all over it. Holding it in my hands, I couldn't help but notice how it gave off an aura like that of Round Deer if it was terrible. Gojo instantly appeared by my side and inspected the shield closely.
"Damn, that's a Cursed Tool that is somehow emitting Positive Energy. What are the chances? Seems like your Cursed Technique loves Irony Grimm."
I nodded and put the shield off to the side. I couldn't use it effectively right now since I didn't use a shield during battle, but perhaps I could restore its blessing to full potency or something along those lines? After all, I did have the Way of White Miracles already. But that's for the future.
As Gojo returned to his babysitter position I faced Megumi again.
"Alright, this time it's the Bull right?"
"Piercing Ox, yes. It might be a good idea to worry about this one. It's the physically strongest Shikigami among the 10 Shadows. With the exception of Mahoraga."
This time, I took the warning seriously. Yes, I could just fly and spam fireballs, but that sounded lame. And I felt like cheating a win might just lower my ticket. After all, it wasn't like a machine but an entity evaluating how cool I was.
"Let's go."
"Piercing Ox!"
Throwing up his gang signs, Megumi summoned the Bull and it in all honesty didn't look all that impressive. Fully resembling a regular huge ass bull with a plate with an x engraved on it on its forehead. But it emanated a fierce aura nonetheless.
"Snort!!!!"
The Ox blew steam out of his nose and stomped on the ground before charging towards me, it was quite fast. But with Precognition, it was as well not move at all. Opening my Seraph Tracers, I leapt to the side and avoided the charge while slashing its side with a wing, opening a light gash.
Alright, so this guy is apparently exponentially stronger than Round Deer. Moving to the side again like a matador, I created several purple fireballs that struck the side of the Bull hard enough to make it stagger.
A few exchanges that went almost exactly the same quickly revealed that this thing did not have anything it could do beyond trying to ram me. Nor the rationale to concoct a plan to land a ram on me.
Not that I didn't appreciate an honest and simple course of action. But this dude really was just a very strong bull without any special abilities that helped it fight. While I had reflexes up the wazoo and precognition.
I jumped over yet another charge and scored his back with my wings and let off several more fireballs towards his flank.
Summoning Golem Core, I made him merge with the ground and disrupt the Piercing Ox's footing to prevent him from running any straight lines. I knew how his technique worked, getting stronger by moving in a straight line. So disabling any stable footing effectively neutered that technique.
As I continued wearing down the bull, I decided to finish it off properly. Crouching into a low stance I brought my hands together to channel Satsui no Hado. Flames gathered in my hands as the Bull tried to charge me only to trip on a ledge created sneakily by the Golem and go flying.
Imbuing my hatred and rage into the fire, I thrusted my hands forward towards the airborne bull.
"HADOKEN!"
BOOM!
As he was already quite injured, when the Hadoken struck the Bull right on the neck. As the ball of flame exploded, his body was blown to smithereens. Dissolving back into the Shadows he came from before he even hit the ground.
"Wow, that was quite the show, you were like a real Matador, Grimm!"
Ignoring Gojo's clapping, I withdrew my hands and let out a shaky breath, trying to calm myself down. Doing a Hadoken was way too fun, but the toll of using Satsui no Hado so liberally was very taxing. It might be a good idea to call it a day for now.
Feat Achieved! Defeat the Piercing Ox
+1x Gold Familiar Gacha Ticket
Ooh, a gold familiar? Hopefully it'll give me something with good utility I can use with Familiar Manifestation.
Snatching the ticket blown into the air by a gust of wind, I tore it in half.
Rolling Gold Familiar Gacha...
An Uncommon Familiar!
[Slime]
|Uncommon Familiar|
A classic RPG slime, amorphous large blue blob that is immune to physical damage, can spit out globs of acid and corrode things with its body. The more you feed this slime biological matter, the larger and stronger it will grow. It can even evolve if fed special foods.
Appearing before my feet was a large dark blue blob roughly the size of a washing machine. Everyone(Other than Mai and Megumi, the edgy loners) gathered around the lovely round boy as we looked between us and down at the slime.
"That's totally an RPG Slime right? Does it talk?"
"No, but it does melt things."
"It's cute. In a blobby kinda way."
Gojo poked the slime and it wobbled like a pudding under his touch, of course it failed to melt him but I was feeling quite good about this familiar. It may not be that good by itself, but with familiar manifestation I could use his melting ability quite well. And it was also an investment type familiar, so it could get stronger along with me.
...What if I fed it Golden Apples? Or Deadshot Daiqiri's?
I picked the Slime up(it did not melt me) and smiled at him brightly as if he was my prized child.
"We are going to do great things together buddy."
"Blurb."
I'm taking that as a yes.
A/N: This is more of a training chapter, I was unable to resist the temptation of abusing the Ten Shadow's subjugation rituals to grind some tickets for Grimm. Not too many but he did get a good boost here. Especially with Induce Lactation and Slime.
Seriously, Mmm Milk and Induce Lactation? That shit is broken, now he only needs Calcium Cultivation to complete the set. And the Slime is really good for getting use out of novelty items. What did you guys think about this chapter? I'd love to know.