Chapter 92: Bonus - : Surprises?

Chapter 92: Bonus Chapter: Surprises?

This is the bonus Chapter for 5k stones.

The next bonus Chapter will be at 7.5k stones.

Read ahead on pat.reon if you are interested.

Get cracking.

...

Colleen—Drop by the Dojo tomorrow; I’ve got a surprise for you.

First Natasha and now Colleen. Wasn’t he getting too many surprises?

’Am I in my popular phase?’ John sent a thumbs-up over the message and got ready to eat.

Maybe the Hanma pheromones were doing their job a bit too well. Still, the one thing John was happy about was that at least he didn’t start liking dudes.

He especially remembered how bad Yujiro was with this; just imagining Fury looking like a woman in his head was enough to almost kill his appetite.

"Thank god I still love women." Memories of his time with Gwen restored his hunger somewhat and also made him smile a little.

After eating what could only be compared to a skyscraper of steaks, John entered the specialized training room and opened the system shop at last.

It was time to spend all the gathered EP.

The first thing he bought was the Birth Control skill after sitting down on the padded floor. Honestly, he was a bit skeptical as the purple fireflies entered his body and sank to his crotch.

It was this awkward itch and fuzzy warmth that would’ve sent him squirming across the floor any other day. But for now, John only had one thing to say with that stone-like face.

"Balls itch." It was honestly the worst and probably the most uncomfortable 10 minutes of his life.

It didn’t help even if he scratched his balls. In fact, that sort of made it worse; that’s what made it unbearable. So, he waited till the end when this weird feeling settled in his testicles for good.

Now, how could he check if this skill worked as intended?

Truthfully, there wasn’t any real way to test this right now. Gwen was most likely out doing Spiderwoman things.

And he couldn’t exactly drop a message like ’Hey, would you mind swinging by my place so I can test this skill and see if you get pregnant or not?’

"What a weird train of thought, let’s move on." Maybe he got a bit ahead of himself with this purchase.

But since it was already done, and he did need it, John could only shrug. Not like this damned system had a refund policy.

’Zero out of five steaks.’ Naturally, John moved on to the next item on the list.

He saved the Water stream smashing rock fist for later and bought the Special Grade Sorcerer physique on the spot. The purple fireflies were much brighter and in a much larger number than the usual fanfare.

The herd’s size could easily rival an average human’s body.

As usual, these bugs of pure light and intent entered through his mouth and turned right into centipedes like a scene out of a horror movie.

However, it didn’t take long for them to fill out his body, that coldness packed inside his skin. They had even entered his brain and started to integrate into everything that was already inside his body.

The reversed cursed technique, the amount of Cursed energy, his output, and everything in between started to skyrocket until it hit the physical limit.

Rather than a barrier, it was more of a signpost that marked the special grade territory beyond it.

More than that, John could feel this energy permeate through each of his muscle fibres and nerves, down to his bone marrow. It was like he was a blade being sharpened and honed by some blacksmith.

And as unsettling as the energy felt, this feeling was super comfortable. John almost dozed off before he caught himself.

His CE reserves shot through the sky at once as it felt like these centipedes made of pure energy started to claw out of his body and spilled onto the floor. Officially sending him into the Special grade rank.

But Special grade in what sense? Was it a testament to his ability to fight a country alone? Was it this absurd amount of cursed energy pouring out of him? Was it because of some other checklist he didn’t know of?

John had zero clue why he felt like he had become a Special Grade. Still, he felt it deep inside his bones.

Something had fundamentally changed, but also nothing changed?

And through it all, John didn’t even bat an eye. There was no doubt, no fear, just him inside that room as whatever needed to happen happened.

He had his eyes closed in deep concentration even as these centipedes crawled all over him, slowly filling the football field-sized training room till they had reached his knees.

’This is not enough.’ John kept thinking back on Natasha’s case.

And more than that, this was far too much of a sorry showing for a fully awakened Hanma. At least that’s what he felt like.

As if responding to him, the centipedes started to go crazy. Squirming all over as they jumped out of his body, doubling with each slimy turn until they had filled the entire place with their bodies.

John felt the training room trembling as it was tightly packed with cursed energy. If he had done this in his room, the people in the surrounding blocks would’ve run for their lives and caused a commotion of a lifetime.

"If I don’t control this, I might become the walking plague." The flow of cursed energy was honestly too enormous; it was like an ocean.

This energy also had an unruly and unstable feel about it, like a cold raging fire if that made sense. He needed it under control if he wished to leave this training room.

’I have two surprises waiting for me tomorrow; can’t get stuck here.’ John shook his head as the normal attempts to restrain the out-of-control flow of cursed energy, which was almost like a broken HDPE pipe, weren’t working.

But upon closer look, it wasn’t just one hole where all this energy came out of. There were hundreds of them, even thousands of them. All this energy poured out from thousands of valves spread over his body.

It wasn’t easy to open and close these valves on command. Especially when he had just learned of their existence. That type of fine control was something that’d take him a while to learn.

Still, even if he couldn’t turn them off normally, all he had to do was plug the openings forcefully.

’Just use more force, truly the Hanma way.’ To reign in one energy, he could use another.

The Conqueror’s Haki.

John had noticed something strange about his own Conqueror’s Haki. It responded particularly well to the absolute certainty that came with his Hanma instincts. The same instinct that made the world feel like something that should bend before him.

And this unruly energy that poured out of his body was also, in a way, a part of the world now. More than that, it was a part of his body.

’Something that is part of my body should listen to me.’

John took a deep breath as his Haki spread outwards.

The blood red wave spread thin between the training room’s boundary and the energy, slowly boxing it in. After a little resistance, the energy swam back into his body alongside the balloon made of Conqueror’s Haki, perfectly contained inside him.

With Conqueror’s Haki enhancing his control over the surroundings, John could avoid becoming a walking evacuation order in normal day-to-day life. But it might be hard to control it without all his focus; the moment the focus slips, cursed energy rushed out.

’I still need more training to get familiar with this control mechanism.’ John was more eager to test out his improved output and the reversed cursed technique.

He also had extra training to do with Armament and Observation Haki. And there was the Water mouthful fist left as well. But before he could move on to those parts, a new system notification arrived before him.

[Loki is currently questioning the reason for his existence. +500 EP]

"That sounds totally normal." He chuckled dryly; most people did that thing every day and lived just fine.

John himself had been through a couple of them since his arrival in this world. But what would happen if a God was doing the same?

This was the same god who tried to destroy Jotunheim with the Bifrost. Would he try to laser the nine realms next?

’This is gonna be troublesome...’ John sighed while looking at the heartless notification still in front of him.