Twenty minutes later, Seimei returned to the surface.
As planned, he recalled the five shadow clones that were practicing two Dust Release techniques out in the sea. Everything went smoothly, and his Dust Release: Boundary Stripping Technique leveled up from lv1 (150/200) to lv2 (1/500)! A sudden wave of clarity hit him, and once he fully processed it, he felt his understanding of the technique had deepened significantly.
It wasn't a complete game-changer, but casting the technique definitely felt smoother and more natural.
Plus, with the experience from this level-up as a guide, Seimei had a hunch that he wouldn't need another twenty minutes to level up his Dust Release: Original Boundary Stripping Technique. Feeling confident, he decided to skip using shadow clones this time and headed to the shore himself to practice the Original Boundary Stripping Technique.
In less than ten minutes, he grinded it up to lv2.
And just like that, both Dust Release techniques he'd recently mastered had reached lv2.
Leveling up to lv3, though, required 500 proficiency points—a goal that wasn't going to be met in just a few dozen minutes. Seimei wasn't worried about his training being interrupted, so he cast Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again, creating five shadow clones and sending them off to practice both the Original Boundary Stripping Technique and the Boundary Stripping Technique.
As for himself, he returned to the volcano to start a new round of training.
Days passed by like this.
Before he knew it, it was mid-March. Half a month had gone by since he successfully learned the two Dust Release techniques.
That morning, deep beneath Moon Island, inside the volcano, Seimei was training as usual, using Body of the Extreme to strengthen his body and push his Byakugan toward evolution.
Suddenly, a strange sensation surged within him, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He stopped immediately and checked his condition.
It didn't take long to pinpoint the cause.
Just moments ago, his Dust Release had finally accumulated the last bit of evolution points needed, jumping from (999/1000) to (1/5000). With this advancement, his natural talent had improved, making it noticeably easier to strengthen his body.
Focusing his mind, Seimei resumed training with Body of the Extreme.
Time ticked by, second by second.
About half an hour later, he paused again.
Checking himself, he confirmed what he'd suspected: this Dust Release advancement had indeed sped up his body's transformation. Originally, he estimated his body wouldn't reach the critical point for transformation until late April. Now, he figured mid-April—about a month from now—would be enough.
Seimei couldn't help but feel thrilled.
On top of that, advancing his Dust Release had deepened his mastery over this kekkei tōta. He had a gut feeling that he could now cast both the Original Boundary Stripping Technique and the Boundary Stripping Technique with less chakra and still gain proficiency.
It was about time for his hourly check-in, so he decided to test his theory. With a quick cast of Flying Thunder God Technique, he teleported to Moon Island.
His surroundings shifted in an instant.
Looking at the familiar scenery, Seimei let out a small breath. He stood still, letting his body recover naturally.
A moment later, feeling back to normal, he dispelled the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique. Instantly, all his shadow clones—whether on the island, off the island, or even deep in the primal forest in the northeast of the Land of Fire—dissolved.
A flood of memories rushed into his mind. As always, Seimei set them aside for a moment. He first focused on sorting and storing the chakra and natural energy that came with those memories. Only then did he start sifting through the memories themselves.
Time passed slowly.
About ten minutes later, Seimei opened his eyes again. He'd fully processed the training experience from the memories and converted it into proficiency for the corresponding skills.
With that done, he flickered to the shoreline. Raising his hands, he began casting the Original Boundary Stripping Technique to test it out.
Silently, a palm-sized cubic barrier formed between his hands. Seimei glanced at it and said, "Go!"
In the blink of an eye, the cubic barrier shot out at a speed barely visible to the naked eye, reaching the sea dozens of meters away. It suddenly expanded, growing from less than ten centimeters to about a meter on each side. The concentrated Dust Release chakra inside swelled as well, eventually bursting into a blinding white light.
When the light faded, all that remained was a cubic hole in the sea, quickly being filled by the surrounding water.
Seimei ignored the hole and checked his panel to see how much chakra he'd used.
"1900 points, huh," he muttered, thinking for a moment before forming hand signs and casting the technique again.
This time, he used 1800 chakra points. Checking the proficiency for Original Boundary Stripping Technique, he saw it still increased by one point.
Nodding, Seimei reduced the chakra even further and cast the technique again. Bit by bit, he tested the lowest amount of chakra needed to gain proficiency.
Soon, he had his answer: 1500 points.
That's right—just 1500 chakra points were enough to gain one proficiency point. That was a quarter less than before.
And it wasn't just the Original Boundary Stripping Technique. Further testing showed that the Boundary Stripping Technique also required a quarter less chakra—sometimes even more. In the end, he found that Boundary Stripping Technique needed only 6000 chakra points on average to gain one proficiency point.
Looking at the reduced costs and checking his remaining backup chakra, Seimei decided to lower his daily chakra allocation. He'd drop it from 10.48 million points to 5.48 million points. That way, the chakra he invested in the two Dust Release techniques would go from 20 million to 15 million points daily.
This 25% reduction wouldn't significantly affect the proficiency gains for the two techniques, and it'd make planning his training easier moving forward.
Decision made, Seimei didn't dwell on it. He opened his ninja pouch, pulled out a few enhanced soldier pills, and swallowed them to replenish the energy he'd burned over the past hour.
Then, he cast Multiple Shadow Clone Technique again, creating 300 shadow clones and another five for a new round of training.
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