Chapter 9: Great Increase in Strength
[Abe no Seimei: Ancestor of Onmyodo]
[Role Playing Progress: Childhood [Upgradeable]]
[Character Abilities:
Basic Talisman Compendium [Advanced], Five Pointed Star Incantation [Advanced], Shikigami Contract [Intermediate]
Word Spirit Technique [Beginner], Uho [Beginner] ]
Gin Tsumugi looked at the system interface floating before his eyes.
His role playing progress was already full. He could advance at any moment.
Even so, he did not choose to do it in the office.
The reason was simple. When he had first awakened the role playing system, the disturbance it caused had not been small. Since then, Gin had never treated an upgrade lightly. He reached out, pushed aside the bookshelf beside the office wall, and revealed a hidden door behind it.
Beyond it was a secret room.
The room was directly connected to the White Fox Office and covered a little over fifty square meters. Its furnishings were simple to the point of austerity. Talismans were pasted across all four walls, layered carefully to conceal spiritual fluctuations, suppress sounds, and block outside detection. On the floor sat only a square meditation cushion.
Aside from that, the only other notable item was a large bookshelf set against the wall on the far right.
It was filled with old books.
Most of them were texts related to onmyoji, folklore, or the Heian and Kamakura periods. Titles such as Okagami, Konjaku Monogatarishu, Uji Shui Monogatari, Kokin Chomonju, and Heike Monogatari sat side by side in orderly rows.
Gin had not collected them out of scholarly passion.
At first, he had simply bought them to make the room feel less empty. A secret room that contained nothing at all would have looked more suspicious than one dressed up like a private study. Later, however, he discovered that reading ancient texts from the eras closest to Abe no Seimei's life could very slightly increase his role playing progress.
The increase had been so tiny that he had nearly given up on it several times.
Still, no matter how small, accumulated progress was still progress.
Besides, after a long session of training, reading those old tales as a way to unwind was not unpleasant.
Gin stepped into the room, shut the hidden entrance behind him, and sat cross legged on the meditation cushion.
He slowly emptied his mind.
His breathing became even. His shoulders relaxed. The noise of the outside world faded away until only the faintest awareness of the room remained.
Then he gave the command.
"Role Playing System. Advance."
In an instant, the world changed.
It was as though everything around him had turned unreal. The walls, the floor, the talismans, the bookshelves, all of them rapidly lost substance, thinning into something mist like and distant. A dense darkness spread in all directions, vast and ethereal, until it felt less like standing in a room and more like floating in a boundless void.
Then Sanskrit characters began to appear.
Mysterious. Ancient. Profound.
One after another, they drifted through the darkness and revolved around Gin's consciousness, as though chanting a truth that transcended language. Before he could fully understand what was happening, something else seized him.
A pull.
A crossing.
It felt as if thousands of years of time had collapsed in a single instant.
Reality and illusion blurred together.
Dream and memory fused.
And then—
Gin Tsumugi was no longer Gin Tsumugi.
Or rather, his consciousness had stepped into the life of another.
He returned to a thousand years in the past, to an age when monsters and specters roamed freely under heaven, when humans and yokai still struggled for dominion over the night, when Onmyodo had yet to fade into old records and ceremonial form.
It was the age of Abe no Seimei.
The age of brilliance.
The age when onmyoji challenged one another in wisdom, skill, and spiritual attainment, pushing Onmyodo toward its greatest height.
In that dreamlike state, Gin no longer felt like an observer.
He was Seimei.
Not merely watching, but living.
He felt the weight of a recommendation letter placed into his hands by his teacher, Kamo no Tadataka. He walked through the gates of the Onmyoryo and entered its halls not as a legend, but as a student. He immersed himself in theory, in ritual, in spellcraft, in the difficult and often thankless study of yin yang principles, exorcistic methods, and spiritual law.
He debated with fellow students.
He learned.
He refined.
He struggled.
Countless Onmyodo techniques that once seemed obscure or distant became clear through firsthand comprehension. Knowledge no longer came to him as explanation. It became lived experience, something engraved into instinct through repeated effort and long discipline.
Time flowed.
The child became a youth.
His foundation in Onmyodo grew solid and immovable. His comprehension sharpened. Techniques others found difficult came to him with almost unnatural ease. Spell formulas became second nature. Ritual structures unfolded in his mind before they were even completed.
Before long, he had become the most dazzling genius in the Onmyoryo.
Then came the first true turning point.
Kyoto was troubled by an evil spirit.
And it was Seimei who went alone.
He exorcised it with his own hands.
From that day onward, his name began to spread through the capital.
He graduated from the Onmyoryo.
He became a true onmyoji.
And just as the momentum of that life seemed ready to carry him further—
The flow of time stopped.
The dream began to recede.
The world of a thousand years ago dissolved into darkness once more, and Gin's consciousness was slowly drawn back.
When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting in the hidden room of the White Fox Office.
"Haa..."
A long breath left his chest.
His eyes were still faintly unfocused, as though part of him remained half submerged in that distant life. The aftertaste of it lingered too strongly to ignore. It did not feel like a vision. It did not feel like borrowed memory.
It had felt real.
Too real.
"It was like living through a dream that lasted a thousand years."
Gin lowered his gaze slightly, his voice quiet in the empty room.
"I truly stepped into Abe no Seimei's life. His emotions, his experiences, his struggles, his knowledge... even his strength."
He shook his head, pushing away the last of the lingering haze, and called up the system again.
[Abe no Seimei: Ancestor of Onmyodo]
[Role Playing Progress: Adolescence [0%]]
[Character Abilities:
Basic Talisman Compendium [Minor Accomplishment], Shikigami Contract [Minor Accomplishment], Five Pointed Star Incantation [Minor Accomplishment], Word Spirit Technique [Proficient], Uho [Proficient]
Immovable Binding Technique [Proficient], Fire Boundary Spell [Proficient]
Ghost Averting and Evil Dispelling Incantation [Advanced] ]
Onmyodo techniques were divided by level of mastery.
Beginner.
Intermediate.
Advanced.
Proficient.
Minor Accomplishment.
Major Accomplishment.
Perfected.
Gin read through the updated list, and a smile slowly surfaced in his eyes.
"Basic Talisman Compendium, Shikigami Contract, and Five Pointed Star Incantation all jumped straight from Advanced to Minor Accomplishment. Word Spirit Technique and Uho also advanced to Proficient."
He was more than satisfied.
The gap between Advanced and Minor Accomplishment was enormous, so large that it could not be measured in a simple percentage. Take the Five Pointed Star Incantation alone. Its raw power had multiplied several times over, while its spiritual power consumption had dropped by roughly ten to twenty percent. In actual combat, that kind of improvement was enough to change the entire rhythm of a battle.
The same logic applied to the Basic Talisman Compendium.
Though called a single technique, it was really a complete collection of talisman based arts. The healing, sealing, offensive, and support talismans Gin had used in previous exorcisms all fell under its scope. Advancing it to Minor Accomplishment did not merely increase efficiency. It meant access to a broader range of talismans, stronger effects, more stable activation, and better control.
Shikigami Contract had undergone a similar transformation.
But what truly caught Gin's interest were the three new techniques that had appeared after the upgrade.
Immovable Binding Technique.
Fire Boundary Spell.
Ghost Averting and Evil Dispelling Incantation.
His eyes sharpened slightly.
"Immovable Binding Technique and Fire Boundary Spell... both of these are Professional Rank Onmyodo techniques."
Even though he already held official certification as a Professional Rank Five onmyoji, the truth had been slightly embarrassing.
Until now, he had not actually possessed any proper Professional Rank Onmyodo techniques.
The strength he displayed at that level had been pieced together through high mastery of the Basic Talisman Compendium, the Five Pointed Star Incantation, and the Word Spirit Technique. It worked, but it left an obvious gap in his arsenal.
Now that gap had finally been filled.
Then there was the last technique.
Ghost Averting and Evil Dispelling Incantation.
Gin stared at it for a few seconds longer than the others.
That was not a Professional Rank technique.
No.
That was something that belonged firmly in the realm of National Rank Onmyodo.
He had never heard of any ordinary Professional Rank onmyoji mastering it. In truth, even among National Rank practitioners, a technique like that would be enough to command respect.
"Abe no Seimei really does deserve the title Ancestor of Onmyodo," Gin murmured.
The inheritance was absurdly powerful.
And now, so was he.
If before he could only barely exert Professional Rank strength by relying on mastery and versatility, then now things were different. His current self could stand at the top tier among Professional Rank onmyoji without any exaggeration.
More than that—
If he crossed paths with a National Rank onmyoji now, he would no longer be someone who could only endure helplessly.
He might not be able to win.
But he could exchange blows.
He could fight.
That alone marked a fundamental leap.
Gin slowly closed the system interface, but the faint light of satisfaction remained in his eyes.
The gain from this promotion was even greater than he had expected.