"Did I go too far?"
On the other side, Tatsuma, who had just put the furniture back in place, felt a bit regretful.
He got excited for a moment and forgot to hold back, not letting Koneko win once. A high-quality sparring partner like Koneko was hard to find, and it would be troublesome if she became discouraged.
"I'll buy her some dessert tomorrow as an apology."
While making the decision, Tatsuma opened his system panel.
After defeating Koneko, he had obtained a purple trait.
[Senjutsu (Purple): A technique that manipulates the flow of life. With in-depth development, it can be used in many fields.]
Good stuff.
Tatsuma's eyes lit up, and he equipped the new trait.
However, just then, a prompt popped up.
[Insufficient equip slot. Do you want to consume 10 white traits or 1 green trait to open a new slot?]
"Five is the limit?"
Tatsuma glanced at the trait panel and unequipped "Spiritual Vision."
Although they were all white traits, Sword Enthusiast could speed up his training.
Furthermore, based on Tatsuma's understanding of Senjutsu, one of its most common abilities was perception. With it, Spiritual Vision was no longer useful.
Equipping Senjutsu, Tatsuma immediately felt the Ki deep within his body the next second.
Ki is the root power of life, usually hidden in the unknown regions of the human body. The stronger a person's body, the stronger the Ki within their body.
With Senjutsu, Tatsuma for the first time mobilized the Ki within his body and began to study how to use it.
...
The night passed without a word, and time came to the next day.
Tatsuma sat cross-legged on the bed, a soft white light emanating from his body.
This white light, like a gently flowing spiritual spring, slowly permeated his body, bit by bit, gradually developing the potential within his body.
After an unknown amount of time, Tatsuma suddenly opened his eyes and exhaled a white mist. Cracking sounds came from various parts of his body, and his muscles visibly tightened, glowing with a faint white light.
"Not bad, the effect is better than expected." Tatsuma showed a satisfied smile.
This was the result of his night of studying Senjutsu.
Senjutsu is the power to manipulate the root of life. Besides being used for perception and investigation, it can also be used to regulate the body and develop its internal potential.
Ordinary people have limited potential, so the effect of using Senjutsu to develop potential wouldn't be particularly obvious.
But Tatsuma was different. He had endless potential, and even a rough development could greatly improve his physical attributes.
In one night, the improvement he gained was comparable to several days of training before.
"With Senjutsu, I can maintain ample energy even without sleeping now."
"Next, while training and developing potential through Senjutsu, my strength will grow even faster."
[Ding! Host's strength has broken through to Level 2, unlocking the trait upgrade function!]
Just then, a new prompt sounded.
"Finally broke through?"
Tatsuma, who was about to go out for his morning run, paused and opened the panel to study the new function.
The new function was not complicated. Simply put, it allowed him to spend multiple traits of the same tier to upgrade a trait's quality.
Take the Senjutsu he just obtained last night as an example.
Senjutsu was a purple trait.
As long as Tatsuma consumed ten purple traits, he could upgrade it to a red trait.
Tatsuma was unsure what specific changes would occur. However, with the improvement in trait quality, the effect would undoubtedly be amplified.
"Opening new slots requires traits, and upgrading trait quality also requires traits. Is this encouraging me to fight more and farm traits?"
Tatsuma closed the panel and began his outdoor run. Anyway, he would complete his morning exercise first.
—
Because there were many high-quality targets in the school, Tatsuma didn't skip class and went to school for another day.
After class and school, he inquired his way to the first-year classroom.
"Koneko, a senior is looking for you."
Koneko, who was about to go to the club, responded and turned her head to look at the doorway not far away.
"Tatsuma-senpai? Why are you here?"
"Of course, to fulfill yesterday's agreement." Tatsuma handed over the dessert he had bought in advance.
"...Thank you."
Koneko hesitated for a moment before accepting the dessert.
Although she was beaten to a pulp by Tatsuma yesterday, she reflected on it afterwards and realized that she couldn't really blame him.
Tatsuma summoned her originally to find an opponent for actual combat. As a summoned devil, she failed to meet his requirements and was rather derelict in her duty.
"Koneko, can you do me a favor?"
The expression on Koneko's face disappeared. "Senpai, this is non-working hours."
"Cough... You misunderstood, I'm not here to fight you."
"...To fight other devils?"
"You guessed right."
Tatsuma gave a thumbs up. "You should have other colleagues, right? Can you recommend a few to me?"
She couldn't.
Koneko originally wanted to refuse, but she suddenly remembered Rias's words from yesterday.
The refusal that was already at the tip of her tongue was swallowed back down.
She hesitated for two seconds before replying, "I can't make the decision on this matter, but if you have time, I can take you to see President."
Tatsuma agreed, "Then I'll trouble you."
Following Koneko, the two arrived at the second floor of the old school building not far away.
Pushing open the wooden door with the "Occult Research Club" sign, Koneko led the way in.
"President, I've brought Tatsuma-senpai."
Currently, only Rias and Akeno were in the club, Yuuto was not present.
Hearing the commotion, both of them simultaneously looked over.
After sizing up Tatsuma, Rias proactively stood up and greeted him, "Tatsuma-kun, welcome to the Occult Research Club."
"I am the President of this club, Rias Gremory."