Chapter 58: Mentor

“Huff!”

Aleph was forced to take a deep breath. The sensation of drowning in water was still fresh to him just now. He looked around his surroundings and saw the familiar bedroom.

“...I’m back.”

His sight was caught by the lines of text in the corner.

[Achievement Unlocked: Proficient Planeswalker]

[Achievement Unlocked: Escaping Death]

[Planeswalker: Travel to another space-time twice.]

[Escaping Death: Experience near-death five times.]

Upon reading them further, he saw their rewards.

[Power Transformation: Transform the space-time artifact {Worlds’ Light} into a mark. It can be placed anywhere on the body.]

[Blink: A power belonging to the Sequence Five Traveler of the Door Pathway. It is an instantaneous short-distance teleportation. Its maximum distance is ten meters. Its cooldown is five minutes.]

“...”

Aleph became silent at the rewards. He took out the [Power Transformation] first. At once, the mirror on the box flashed before it turned into a mark akin to a silver sword. He tried moving it on his forehead, right arm, and even his chest.

Surprisingly, it was able to turn invisible at his thoughts. Aleph decided to place it on the back of his left hand.

Next was the [Blink]. It physically manifested into a blue crystal door. The moment he crushed it, something was born inside him. Several ‘thoughts’ rushed at his mind which explained its function.

‘A single thought…’

An average speed of thought was between 300 to 500 milliseconds. Aleph’s thought acceleration multiplied that several-fold. [Blink] turned into a terrifying weapon in his hands.

“The cooldown…”

Unfortunately, there was a cooldown to such a strong weapon. Nevertheless, it was added to his arsenal of deadly trump cards.

“I’ll go back for now. There’s still the training cards to be dealt with…”

Aleph looked around his house and discovered there wasn't anything useful left. As he expected, the black box to his artificial intelligence was destroyed when half of the house collapsed.

Soon, a silver light streaked through the sky.

*****

“...So that’s it.”

“Yeah. I was trying to diffuse their conflict. I also had something to tell Mobius.”

“You’re not calling her with a title. I see.”

“Hm?”

“It’s nothing.”

After a while, Aleph ended the daily call with Mei. For some reason, the more he interacted with other women, the worse his foreboding became.

‘I’m not in danger… but I feel the danger.’

There was only one other girl who made him feel like that. The said girl was now treated as the worst spirit with thousands of kills in her hand.

“If that’s how it is…”

Aleph was filled with urges to become even stronger.

“Grade One… I can handle most honkai beasts, save for the emperor-class. Since Great Sage gave that probability… As for others, those robots in Kurumi’s world weren't that hard to deal with…”

He realized how broken his ratio technique was. As long as he manages to stay close to his enemies, they won’t be able to defend from his strikes. That became evident when he mowed through the steel robots with ease.

His attack power, at the very least, was extremely strong. His only problem remained to be his body’s endurance.

“Fifty five senzu beans…”

Aleph recalled the magical beans from his [Achievement Hunter]. After some experiments, he found out they healed even severe injuries. Those findings cost three such beans.

With [Great Sage], it was able to deduce its composition being similar to a Full Potion capable of speeding cell growth to a terrifying degree. Only, the Senzu Beans were even stronger.

“I need to find some way…”

His attention was finally taken by the silver cards. The one he was holding had a silhouette of a man with a flaming beast behind him.

With the recent experience from the other world, Aleph became slightly more confident in the [Achievement Hunter]’s credibility. 

He even prepared himself to open the [Random Box] he disregarded for months within the next few weeks.

“Usage is to pinch it tightly, then think of wanting to enter…”

It was unknown how long Aleph stayed still. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw the scenery of a ruined city. The leftover aura from it (i.e., residual cursed energy) was enough to surprise him.

Just as he was wondering where “Kashimo Hajime” was, a strong sense of danger pricked the back of his neck. It was numbing enough to match—or even surpass—the feeling he had from the fourth Herrscher.

“Tsk, really? I have to entertain someone even after my death?”

A man with disheveled hair approached him out of nowhere. He was holding a Nyoi Staff as he walked leisurely towards Aleph.

Without any warning, his figure disappeared. The danger signs Aleph felt was strengthened to the extreme. He didn’t even think much before he used [Blink] to move ten meters backwards.

Sou-!

Bam-!

Kashimo’s figure reappeared at the exact same spot where Aleph was once standing The impact generated by his swing was enough to shatter the ground.

The black energy visible in his elemental sight was overwhelmingly large; enough to engulf Aleph.

“Oh?”

Once again, his figure disappeared. This time, Aleph came prepared. His instinctual activation of [Blink] proved that everything still worked inside this ruined city.

The moment his thoughts were accelerated, the perception of time became slower to him.

From not being able to see Kashimo’s figure, he finally saw a portion of his afterimage. All of his parallel minds began working full-time.

By the time Kashimo was about to strike another blow, Aleph took out [Durandal] from the [Seven Swords] mark. A ratio line was swiftly created at the staff Kashimo held.

Then—

Bam-!

Crack-!

At first contact, Aleph’s body flew straight to the other side. The strength contained within Kashimo’s body completely overwhelmed that of a Grade One. Several fractures appeared in his body—mainly his right arm.

“...Huh.”

Kashimo looked at his severed Nyoi Staff in surprise. It was exactly cut between the seventh ratio line. A name immediately appeared from his memories.

“Ah. Nanami’s cursed technique could cut through many things. It’s a pity we lost him.”

The sole holder of the ratio technique in the Jujutsu Society—Kento Nanami.

“Interesting.” He murmured as he continued pushing Aleph further.

'What..?'

At this moment, Aleph fell into an extremely strange state. His elemental sight changed drastically.

Aside from the usual colors representing life and energy, there were silhouettes of Kashimo. It was as if several pictures were taken in different periods of time.

These figures had seemingly been frozen while the true Kashimo kept moving.

This state lasted for a few moments before it reverted back to normal.

'Here..!'

Kashimo immediately appeared in front of Aleph, to which the latter immediately thrust his blade. This time, the impact contained within it far exceeded his previous attack.

Bam-!

Kashimo was forced to block it. He was pushed back by several steps. Surprise filled his eyes as he wondered how Aleph was able to do it.

Finally, he relented.

“I’ll give it to you. What do you want to learn?”

Aleph also put down his fighting stance. He stared dazedly at Kashimo who overpowered him in many aspects.

Nevertheless, he hadn’t forgotten the name of that item.

Training Card.

Meaning to say, it was an item used for training. As to how it works?

Kashimo’s existence already explained everything Aleph needed to know.

What the reward provided was a mentor.

Thus—

“Everything.”

—he was dead-set on learning everything he could offer.