With the aid of the Sun and Moon Sword, Kimura Kazuki had a large amount of reiki within his body as he practiced, in comparison to reiki in the air around him.
The reiki in his body was only enough to draw ten Enchanted Talismans. Strength must be gathered first to increase the number of drawings. Luckily, with the help of the Sun and Moon Sword, Kazuki had already collected sea of reiki in his abdomen within twenty-four hours.
The reiki sea, more like a stream, started from the abdomen and flooded through the entire body continuously as it soaked the flesh with energy.
The truth was, the speed of practice for practitioners during the era of the recuperation of reiki could only be described as lightning speed. As the volume of reiki increased, the rate at which their bodies strengthened also grew. Because of this, as they entered the State of Mortal Shedding, a drastic change will occur.
The change is known as Deep Bone Cleansing.
After Deep Bone Cleansing, the speed of practice would then increase again, crossing over the boundaries of the State of Mortal Shedding into the State of Power Formation. It would only slow down after reaching the peak of the State of Power Formation.
After the State of Power Formation was the State of Azoth.
Entry into the State of Azoth was not a question of the amount of reiki possessed but rather an understanding toward the Earth.
In his previous life, a peculiar imbalance existed whereby many practitioners had reached the State of Power Formation but very few who had reached the State of Azoth.
In Kazuki's current state, he would've been considered as an amateur in the practitioner world, the First Stage of the Basics.
Kazuki's speed was nothing in comparison to practitioners during the era of the recuperation of reiki.
Even with the help of the Sun and Moon Sword and non-stop practice, his progress was still slow due to insufficient reiki being present in the air. Also, if he practiced 24/7, the reiki in the surrounding air would be fully absorbed every time he practiced, forcing him to wait for the reiki to replenish over time.
However, there was another way. He could practice in a different place every hour to guarantee enough reiki to have 24-hour non-stop practice. This was impossible.
The spirits of ghosts consisted of a large amount of reiki that could be absorbed. Using that method would be undoubtedly faster than endless practice on Kazuki's own. He also needed to earn money to buy more food.
In swift strokes, the Talisman drawing brush in Kazuki's grasp moved to draw the last figure. The next moment, the Enchanted Talisman moved on its own as the lines on the Enchanted Talisman gleamed brightly and subsequently dimmed down after.
Success.
Everything was within Kazuki's anticipation regardless of whether it succeeded or failed. His skills in Talisman drawing were not rusty as he would revise from time to time on plain paper even though he could not practice.
More importantly, he still could not estimate the outcome based on his control of reiki.
Thus, he had not thought that he would have succeeded in drawing a Talisman with reiki upon his first try.
There was enough reiki in his body to draw Enchanted Talismans. However, upon the last stroke of drawing, the Talisman would meld with the natural reiki of the Earth to envelop itself into the Talisman paper. This was a moment in which the drawer had no control over.
As long as there was sufficient reiki, this step was a sure success, which was also why the success rate of the Enchanted Talisman Skill in the past life was so high.
Yet now… with such thin reiki in the air, success would have to depend on luck.
Just as these thoughts were running through his mind, Kazuki calmed himself to gather focus and continue drawing Enchanted Talismans.
He was only at the First Stage of the Basics, but as an ordinary person, fighting against 10 people would totally pose no problem to him. Of course, this was provided he used only his fists without any weapons. If he knew any fighting skills, his fighting potential would increase further.
However, the First Stage of the Basics was insufficient against ghosts, so Enchanted Talismans became a requirement.
Akichi High School was his first stop of investigation. Yet even if it was only an investigation, he only had one life to spare so he could not go wrong with being careful.
Kazuki produced one Enchanted Talisman per minute at his current speed of drawing.
However, no matter if it was a successful attempt or a failed attempt, Kazuki had to rest five minutes for every piece he drew. The five minutes he took to sleep was to allow the replenishing of reiki in the air to ensure a higher success rate.
For every ten Enchanted Talismans he drew, Kazuki also had to absorb reiki with the aid of the Sun and Moon Sword to replenish the reiki within his body.
Thus, with movements here and there, there were only a few Enchanted Talismans that could be produced in an hour.
As Kazuki drew, he continued to do so for a whole day. From morning till night, it was as if he did not tire.
At night, when Kazuki finally picked up his phone to look at the time, it was already past eight o'clock.
There were seventeen Enchanted Talismans on the table, seven of them being Spiritual Fire Talismans while there were five each for the Ghost Expelling Talisman and the Spirit Stabilizer Talisman. Doing short calculations, the success rate of the Enchanted Talismans was about thirty percent which was still within an acceptable range.
As Kazuki picked up the phone to order food, he did not continue to draw Enchanted Talismans but folded up the Talismans on the table to keep them in his drawer. Subsequently, he continued to flip through the news on his phone.
In such a time where reiki was so thin in the air, it was quite hard for the formation of ghosts. Consequently, Kazuki would not put his hopes on Akichi High School.
Or rather, Kazuki knew in his heart that there was a significant probability that there would not be any ghosts in Akichi High School.
"Head of Department, this is Eguchi Keisuke here, delivering you your Udon noodles."
Half an hour later, Keisuke's voice could be heard from outside the door.
"Come in." Opening the door, he saw the sweat dripping off Keisuke's forehead. Kazuki automatically took the takeaway box from his hands and let him come in.
Keisuke had walked all the way here from his home because there was a steep road along the way and he was unwilling to ride his bicycle over. Even if he could push his bike up the slope, he was still unwilling because it was too tiring!
As soon as Keisuke saw Kazuki, he became ill-at-ease immediately.
It was not because the room was small, in fact, he had been here many times. It was the respect he had for Kazuki that made him ill-at-ease, and despite having already known him for a year, he still felt the same way.
"Have a seat."
There was only one chair in the room, so if he wanted to sit, he could only sit on the bed.
As Keisuke was sweaty from delivering the takeaway, he responded meekly, "I'll just stand."
Kazuki let the matter go and went to arrange the three big bowls of Udon noodles. Inhaling the aroma of the food, Kazuki felt almost rejuvenated.
After starting to practice, he had not filled his stomach in two days, and the constant hunger he felt made him miserable.
He did not gorge on his food but ate it slowly instead.
Maybe because the room was overly silent, Kazuki asked while eating, "So how's school?"
"The freshmen are still okay." He was fiddling with his phone, but Keisuke's focus had been on Kazuki. Hearing his question, he immediately answered, "But a lot of the freshmen are delinquents. They're all transfer students from the other Districts. They must think that Sakura Kyu is still the same as it was."
As he spoke, he sneered. It was apparent that the arrogant delinquents today had upset him.
"Don't spare your words on these delinquents, beat them up first," said Kazuki, "Make them adhere to the school rules. Since a majority of the members of the Sword Believers Club are part of the Disciplinary Committee, all of you will take the lead."
"Other than the delinquents, monitor the general student atmosphere these few days and change it for the better. Especially those who dye their hair put on accessories, or cut their own school uniform, lecture them at first instance regardless of their gender. If they refuse to comply, beat them up no matter if they're male or female."
"Yes, sir!"