Takeshi walked out of his house, and placed his hands on the ground, one leg bent forward, the other stretched back, assuming a starting position.
Boom!
He stomped his foot, and his body instantly vanished.
At this moment, citizens who were strolling on the streets of Magnolia Town after dinner suddenly felt a strong gust of wind sweep past them.
"Ah—!"
A young girl in a skirt suddenly had her skirt blown up, giving some onlookers an eyeful. The girl quickly pressed down her skirt with her hands.
"Hmm? Why is it windy?"
It was clearly a windless night, so why such a sudden strong gust?
About a few tens of seconds later.
Whoosh!
Takeshi reappeared at his doorstep.
Whoosh!
When he suddenly stopped, a strong gust of wind blew, causing stones on the ground to roll.
"Thirty-three seconds."
He didn't need a stopwatch, he himself was like a machine, capable of counting time with near perfect accuracy.
Takeshi was so shocked by this number that he was speechless.
To adapt to the intensity of the transformation as quickly as possible, he insisted on completing the basic training tasks assigned by the system every day.
Although these tasks offered no rewards, the ability to genuinely improve his body was the greatest reward.
The first time Takeshi ran a lap around Magnolia Town, it took him about thirty minutes. Now, he only took a little over thirty seconds.
A lap around Magnolia from here is roughly 10,000 meters.
He took thirty-three seconds, which means he ran approximately 300 meters per second.
"Three hundred meters per second!"
Calculating this number, Takeshi himself was startled. This was already close to exceeding the speed of sound, wasn't it?
He was indeed a monster, he was so fast that even Gojo Satoru's Six Eyes couldn't catch him.
Moreover, he felt that his own physical strength seemed to be restricting Toji's performance. If he could fully unleash it, his speed could even exceed the speed of sound.
"Strong! Truly too strong!"
Takeshi was very excited. This golden character was incredibly powerful. Mirajane was indeed his goddess of luck.
Just as Takeshi deactivated Take Over Magic...
A sharp muscle pain spread throughout his entire body.
"Ahhhhh!"
Takeshi couldn't help but let out a painful howl.
It hurt! It hurt so much!
He had never experienced such pain before. This muscle pain felt even worse than a broken bone.
'System! What exactly is going on?'
If he didn't understand, he would just ask the system.
[Host has excessively increased his physical strength, while his own physique is far from keeping up, which is why muscle pain has occurred.]
'What?! There's actually such a side effect?! Why didn't you say so earlier?!'
[Host didn't ask.]
[In fact, as long as Host persists in training and masters Sun Breathing, Total Concentration: Constant, the pain will greatly diminish.]
So it will still hurt, then!
Seeing the system's response, Takeshi gnashed his teeth in frustration, but at this moment, the pain had already left him with no energy to complain.
He could only lie motionless on the bed. Even a slight breeze would make him grimace in pain. He didn't dare to cry out, because crying out made it hurt even more.
The night passed.
Takeshi was in pain all night. He had never felt that a night could be so long.
It wasn't until the sun slowly rose and sunlight shone on him that he could barely move, at least his fingers could barely move.
Takeshi opened the system panel. Then he selected the blue, green, and white character cards.
[Do you want to recycle these character cards?]
'Yes.'
[Recycling successful! Congratulations, your Magic Power has increased by ☆!]
A surge of magic power gushed from the magic source, nourishing his entire body, and he immediately felt his body pain alleviate considerably.
'System, what exactly is going on? This time I recycled so many character cards. Why did you only give me half a star of Magic Power increase?'
Magic Power is the foundation of everything. Only with greater Magic Power can he better unleash the power of the characters.
[These are all derived from an algorithm. The higher the Magic Power star rating, the greater the consumption for level-up!]
'It's always algorithms, algorithms. What kind of algorithm is it, exactly?'
[To upgrade from four-star Magic Power to five-star, 1000 Magic Power points are required!]
[Recycling white grants 10 points, green grants 20 points, blue grants 50 points, purple grants 800 points, and gold grants 3000 points.]
Takeshi's lips twitched when he saw these prices, there really was an algorithm.
The value of purple and gold seemed the highest, but in Takeshi's opinion, it was still too low.
Even 1000 or 10000 blue character cards couldn't compare to one gold character card. Indeed, all cards below blue were experience cards.
He couldn't go to the guild today, and having completed some high-intensity missions these past few days, he was a bit tired. It was a good opportunity to rest well during his recovery phase.
Just as he lied down and was about to doze off, noisy sounds came from outside.
"Takeshi! Takeshi!"
Takeshi groggily opened the door and saw many people standing at his doorstep.
They were all familiar faces: Natsu, Gray, Happy, Erza, Mirajane, Elfman, Levy, Laki...
Takeshi couldn't help but widen his eyes. "You... why are you all here?"
"We came to hang out with you." Everyone said in unison.
Mirajane smiled and said, "You moved to a new house, didn't you? Everyone heard about it and came to celebrate your housewarming."
Takeshi slapped his forehead. "My apologies. I've been so busy lately that I completely forgot about this. Welcome, welcome. I'll go buy groceries and cook right away."
Takeshi remembered that he had promised to treat Mirajane to a meal.
Erza said, "No need. We all brought things. Let's have a barbecue party here today."
With that, everyone started getting busy: some started fires, some barbecued, and others brought out their specialty dishes. The entire courtyard instantly became lively.
Soon, everyone gathered to eat meat, drink, and chat merrily.
This scene made Takeshi feel a little dazed. His home hadn't been this lively in a long time.
The party lasted until midnight, and only then did everyone reluctantly leave.
After everyone left, Takeshi lied on his bed, recalling the events of the day.
"Guild... comrades..."
At this moment, he truly understood the meaning of a guild and comrades. He felt that he had truly become a member of Fairy Tail.
"This feeling isn't bad."
— — —
Half a year passed in a flash.
Eastern Ishgar Continent.
Auler Kingdom.
In a hidden building somewhere.
At this moment, thousands of people dressed in black robes were gathered here, performing a mysterious ritual.
In the center of these people, a group of individuals were tied to wooden stakes. The stakes stood on the ground, with many firewood piles arranged beneath them.
These people, numbering about several hundred, both men and women, all had their mouths gagged, their eyes filled with terror and despair as they looked at the surrounding crowd.
A masked man stepped forward. "From now on, we will begin the sacrificial ritual."
"These villagers are innocent. These three hundred pure lives will guide him to descend here."
"Great Dark Mage Zeref!!!"
"Oooohhhh!!!"
All the black-robed figures shouted excitedly.
"For us to walk with him in this world, the sacrifice begins—!"
Suddenly—
Boom!
An explosion destroyed the main gate.
"What's going on?!"
A slightly frivolous male voice rang out. "Ah! You really made me search for a while."
Soon, a young man with freckles, wearing an orange cowboy hat, and bare-chested walked in through the main gate.
"Yo! Black Magic Cult bastards, good evening."