Chapter 31: Trial and Practice
Dozens of consecutive ground-stomps compressed into a single instant. The reactive force generated by that momentary burst propels the body forward at a speed so terrifying that the untrained eye cannot perceive it at all.
Replaying the outline of Soru in his mind, Ryū shifted his stance ever so slightly.
But then—without warning—he stumbled.
Nearly faceplanted right into the dirt.
Fortunately, he caught himself just in time.
Sparing himself the indignity of a full-body belly flop.
Ryū straightened his slightly crooked frame and looked down at the ground beneath his feet. A shallow divot had appeared in the soil. He stared at it, lost in thought.
Just now, he had attempted to stomp the ground continuously in the span of a heartbeat.
He'd managed fewer than ten stomps before the whole thing fell apart.
At least his reflexes were sharp enough to save him.
Otherwise he would have eaten dirt in spectacular fashion.
"What went wrong? My physical stats should be more than enough to support the Six Powers by now. But one failure doesn't mean anything—worst case, I just try a few more times."
Muttering to himself, he shifted to a flatter patch of ground.
And attempted Soru again.
The principle: stomp a single point on the ground at least thirty times in a single instant. Every stomp must carry the same force.
Without warning—BOOM.
A dull concussive blast. An invisible shockwave rippled outward in all directions.
The previously level ground beneath his feet cratered into a shallow pit roughly fifty centimeters across, spider-webbed with fractures.
As the sound faded, a faint haze of dust slowly rose into the air.
Ryū's body vanished. The scenery around him blurred into streaks of retreating light.
The sheer wind-force of his passage left his face numb and stiff.
Even keeping his eyes open stung.
When the figure that had vanished from thin air reappeared—
He was over twenty meters ahead.
"Incredibly fast… but it can only travel in a straight line, and you need fast enough reflexes plus fine enough force-control to manage the distance properly."
He glanced back at the shallow crater behind him and counted himself lucky he'd chosen an open spot. At that speed, slamming into a tree—or anything else—would have been catastrophic. Injury, at a minimum.
He practiced Soru several more times in succession, leaving a trail of shallow craters stamped into the earth.
Only when his stamina had noticeably dropped did he finally stop.
At this stage, his Soru was still at the Beginner level. As for what came above Beginner—Proficient? Skilled? Some other descriptor—he had no idea.
Beginner-level Soru could barely be used reliably. Roughly one attempt in ten still failed.
And controlling the dash distance remained dicey at best.
In a real fight, that would be fatal.
Against an evenly matched opponent, at least. Against an ordinary person?
Beginner-level Soru was more than enough.
* * *
"Next up: Tekkai. Although with nobody else around, I've got no way to test exactly how much punishment it can absorb."
Ryū adjusted his blood circulation and stood perfectly still.
As for why manipulating blood flow could make the body hard as iron—
Well… possibly… by analogy to a certain sponge-like tissue?
Best not to apply logic to these things.
All that mattered was that it worked.
The first time he activated Tekkai was markedly different from Soru. This time, the technique came smoothly on the first attempt—because Ryū discovered that he now could not move at all.
He could feel the change in his body with absolute clarity.
In an instant, every part of him had become incomprehensibly hard.
Exactly how hard? Impossible to say.
It wasn't as though he could stab himself to check.
Beginner-level Tekkai only allowed full-body hardening. Selective hardening—locking down a single limb while the rest stayed flexible—required at least another level of proficiency. So even if he wanted to stab himself as a test, he physically couldn't move to do it.
If only he didn't have a measly 102 Points left. If his balance read 102,000…
He'd have upgraded every technique in the Six Powers straight to Admiral-level.
That was the ultimate cheat of the Dimensional Chat Group.
The problem was that Points were agonizingly hard to earn. Even with 100 from the Daily Sign-In every day, a month maxed out at 3,100. A full year wouldn't even reach 40,000.
And he couldn't afford to wait a year. Heaven only knew when Naruto would be born.
By the normal timeline, it should be roughly six to seven months from now.
He could barely stand waiting six or seven months.
Let alone an entire year.
He held Tekkai for about ten seconds, then released it. The body that had been locked rigid could move freely once more.
Whitebeard's training guide had been crystal clear: at the Beginner stage, the Six Powers were not strong.
They even came with significant drawbacks.
Drawbacks that could be fatal in combat.
But once you broke past Beginner, your battle strength would skyrocket.
And your constitution would grow stronger alongside it.
If you described it in gaming terms…
Early game: quiet development. Keep your head down.
Mid game: high attack, high HP.
Late game: HP so thick it makes people's jaws drop.
* * *
After surveying his surroundings, Ryū rolled his neck and muttered to himself, "This area's pretty deserted—nobody ever comes out here. And Konoha isn't that big; it's not far from home either. Could be a good spot to practice Geppo."
Geppo was an essential technique to master. It was an extension of Soru.
So why not learn Geppo first?
After all, if Geppo was an extension of Soru, then learning Geppo should automatically teach you Soru, right?
Ryū had considered that.
But after reading Whitebeard's guide carefully, he'd abandoned the idea.
Geppo and Soru shared a similar underlying principle, but the application differed in critical ways. An extension technique didn't mean the principles were identical—otherwise, why would the Marine Six Powers list Geppo and Soru as separate techniques?
Just merge them into one and be done with it. Like Shigan and its ranged variant.
Whitebeard's guide mentioned that Geppo was built on eighty percent of Soru's theory, combined with an original twenty percent contributed by some unknown Marine powerhouse.
The result was Geppo—a technique classified as an extension, but functionally its own standalone art.
So the math was simple. Learn Soru first: you've covered eighty percent of Geppo. Learn Geppo first: you still need to go back and fill in the remaining twenty percent of Soru's theory. Either way, you're practicing one full technique.
Sweeping the clutter from his mind, Ryū directed his awareness into the Dimensional Chat Group.
Checking in on the group after finishing his own business had become a habit.
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