The next day.
Empyrean Citadel.
The morning sun cast its warmth over the terrace. Birds sang cheerfully in the surrounding trees, weaving a soothing natural symphony. The crisp morning air carried the scent of dew-dampened leaves.
Charlie sat at ease in his favorite rocking chair, a cup of hot chocolate in hand. From the terrace, he could see the entire front courtyard of Empyrean Citadel.
Kei, already dressed in her full adventurer's gear with Flare-chan strapped to her back, approached Charlie as he lounged.
"Charlie-san, I'm heading to the Dungeon now. I'll push myself harder today!"
Without any hesitation, Kei leaned in and kissed Charlie on the lips. Not a fleeting peck, but not an excessively long one either.
"Be careful in the Dungeon." Charlie said softly as their lips parted. "Don't push yourself. If anything feels off, come back immediately."
"I know." Kei smiled faintly. "I'm not some reckless rookie adventurer. And I won't be alone."
At her side, Aishia stood with the blank, emotionless expression that had become her trademark. Without a word, she stepped forward and did the same — kissing Charlie with quiet composure.
"Kei will be safe with me. No danger in the Dungeon can touch her while I'm at her side."
"I trust you, Aishia." Charlie nodded. "Take good care of her."
"Mm."
With that, the two girls set off toward Babel Tower, leaving the faint trace of their perfume lingering in the morning air.
"Now then... time to work."
With a wave of his hand, Charlie activated his Space-Time Cache. One by one, objects began to appear in the air and land softly on the terrace floor beside him.
Seventeen scrolls.
Five ancient books.
All the sealing techniques he had obtained through yesterday's Barter of a Thousand Realms.
Charlie regarded the pile with quiet satisfaction.
"Let me see where Goddess Astraea has taken Est today."
Out of curiosity, Charlie activated his Senrigan. His vision crossed space, piercing through distance until it found the Goddess of Justice.
In an elegant dessert café on the second floor, he could see four goddesses gathered together: Astraea, Artemis, Demeter, and Hestia.
Their topic of conversation was clear — the War Game, now six days away. Hestia Familia against Apollo Familia. A battle that would determine the fate of Bell Cranel and every member of Hestia Familia.
However, Charlie's attention was drawn away by Est. The spirit girl was sitting comfortably on Demeter's lap, while the Goddess of the Harvest lovingly spooned a large mouthful of fruit parfait into her mouth. Est was being treated entirely like a beloved mascot or pet, adored for her extraordinary cuteness.
"Eating something that sweet in the morning... if that were an ordinary person, they'd have developed diabetes long ago." Charlie grimaced at the mental image of the sugar levels at that table. "Well, I suppose gods don't need to worry about their metabolism. Their very nature is divine — mortal ailments can't touch them."
Charlie shifted the focus of his Senrigan. This time, he searched for Bell Cranel. He found the young man on top of the great walls of Orario, in the middle of a sparring session with a short-haired green-haired elf he knew well: Ryuu Lion, a staff member of the Hostess of Fertility.
"Every elf I've met so far has dressed modestly. The Elf race places enormous value on pride and purity. They consider themselves aesthetically and morally superior to other races. Dressing conservatively is their way of displaying their dignity and preserving the integrity of their appearance."
He thought of Lefiya, Riveria, and the other elves he had encountered — all neatly dressed, without exposing excessive skin.
"It's not an exaggeration to call the Elf race the antithesis of the Amazoness race."
Up on Orario's walls, Ryuu was currently fighting Bell and guiding him, her green mantle billowing wide in the wind. The sight seemed almost deliberately arranged to display her slender figure, clad only in an extremely form-fitting white tunic that traced the clear outline of her chest with conspicuous precision. The thin ties at her waist looked as though they might give way at any moment, straining to contain the fabric pressed against her smooth skin.
But the most attention-disrupting detail lay below. Without trousers, Ryuu wore only minimal green shorts that left her inner thighs and the smooth, flawless white skin along her upper legs exposed. It created a striking contrast between the soft skin of her thighs and the tall brown leather boots that rose high up her legs, suggesting a "forbidden territory" that was difficult to look away from.
Though her eyes remained cold and sharp as a blade, the contradiction between her expressionless face and her barely-there clothing only seemed to provoke wilder imaginings.
Charlie watched as Bell attempted to attack — and failed completely. The young man's feet tangled as he tried to dodge Ryuu's kick, his concentration shattered. Ryuu effortlessly read his chaotic movement, and a single sweeping kick sent Bell sprawling onto his back.
"Does she not realize Bell can't concentrate because of what she's wearing?" Charlie murmured helplessly, watching Bell get sent tumbling again by Ryuu's kick after his eyes drifted in the wrong direction. "Well, perhaps she's an exhibitionist without even knowing it. As long as it harms no one, it's not my place to judge how she dresses."
Charlie deactivated his Senrigan. Now it was time to focus on the main task: memorization.
He opened the sealing technique scrolls from the Naruto world and the books from the DxD world, one by one.
Although his memory didn't quite reach photographic recall, it wasn't far off. After all, he was a Level 6. Each time he leveled up, every aspect of his body improved — not just raw strength, but also cognitive processing speed, memory capacity, and the rate at which he absorbed information.
Within ten minutes of silence — nothing but the sound of wind and the creak of the rocking chair — Charlie had committed every sealing technique in his arsenal to memory. All seventeen scrolls and five ancient books were neatly closed once more, their contents stored in perfect clarity in his mind.
But memorizing was not the same as mastering.
"Preparation is done. Time for the main event."
Charlie drew a deep breath. He closed his eyes for a moment. Then he activated his Causality Manipulation ability — Hundred Gauntlets.
Cause: Thousands of repetitions of training, failure, and understanding. (Process.)
Effect: Mastery of a technique. (Result.)
Charlie reversed this causal relationship. He established "Mastery of the Technique" as the cause. Since he had already "mastered" the techniques through his knowledge of them, his body and mind were instantly compelled to possess the necessary muscle memory and understanding as the resulting effect. He leaped over the entire span of training time.
In an instant, his mind was flooded by "pseudo-experience" spanning decades.
The symbols from the scrolls danced before his inner eye — no longer foreign characters, but a language he understood. His hands moved, forming seals he "remembered" performing thousands of times. The flow of energy within his body adapted, finding new channels it had never traveled before.
And then — pain.
A searing headache, as though his brain were being wrung by a giant hand. Decades of experience forced inward in the span of seconds left their mark. The veins at his temples throbbed, and his vision swam with spots of light.
"Ugh... This method is somewhat dangerous. There's a real risk of injuring the brain. After all, the brain is one of the most fragile organs in the human body."
Pressing both hands against his aching head, Charlie quickly applied the Reverse Cursed Technique with Spirit Art to cool his overheated mind.
A refreshing sensation of cold spread from the center of his brain outward, reaching every corner of his skull. The throbbing pain slowly subsided, and the brain cells "wounded" by the flood of information were rapidly regenerated. The Reverse Cursed Technique worked by inverting the flow of cursed energy into positive energy, producing a remarkable healing effect.
In terms of regenerative capability, the Reverse Cursed Technique was a tier above Dia Fratel. Despite being called the most powerful healing magic in this world, Dia Fratel did not surpass the Reverse Cursed Technique.
High-level users of the Reverse Cursed Technique, such as Sukuna or Gojo Satoru, could regenerate fully destroyed or severed limbs, hands, and organs. By contrast, Dia Fratel could only reconnect pieces of the body that were still present, and had to be performed immediately after injury.
It was fair to say that Charlie had rendered Dia Fratel obsolete and moved on to the Reverse Cursed Technique.
His breathing steadied. His head felt light and clear, as though it hadn't just endured an information overload moments before.
Charlie opened his eyes and clenched his fists. He could feel it — within himself now resided mastery over seventeen different sealing techniques. From the relatively simple Five Elements Seal, to the legendary complexity of the Dead Demon Consuming Seal.
"Come to think of it, if I were to use the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, which Death God would come — the one from the Naruto Planar World, or the Death God of this world?"
He stared at his own hands, imagining the ritual for summoning the Death God written in one of the scrolls. In the world where that technique originated, the ritual called upon the Shinigami — the Death God from that realm — to seal the enemy at the cost of the user's life.
But in this world, with its entirely different rules, what entity would respond to his call?
Curious as he was, Charlie was not foolish enough to try it and find out.
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