Power Stone Goals from now on: I always post a minimum of 5 chapters. Henceforth the following are the goals:
Every 150 powerstones, I upload an extra chapter.
If we hit top 30 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we hit top 10 in the 30-90 days power stone rankings, thats 1 more chapter
If we are top 5...well lets get to that first. Happy readings!
Chapter 75: Dark Dream
[Status Panel of Player Mathew
Name: Shikomu Senju (Senju/ Uzumaki)
Titles:
(Deactivated) Konoha Shinobi, (Training speed in Konoha increases by 100%)
(Deactivated) Prince of Konoha, (All NPCs tend to favour you)
Inheritor of Nature, (Your Physique and Chakra require half the EXP to progress. You also have no 'limit.')
Green Beasts Apprentice, (Training in Taijutsu and Physical training increases by 100%. Stackable)
Ninja Rank: S rank Missing Nin
Physical Stat: Early- Elite Jonin (100/1500)
Chakra Amount: Early- Elite Jonin (100/1500)
Chakra Control: Advanced
Elemental Chakra Control:
Water- Proficient
Earth- Proficient
Fire- Advanced
Wood- Advanced
Ninjutsu:
D- Academy 3 (Mastered), Body Flicker Jutsu (200/200)
C- (E) Muddy Capture (300/300), (E) Tunneling Technique (300/300), (E) Stone Fang Jutsu (300/300), (E) Tremor Palm (300/300), (E) Subterranean Evasion (300/300), (E) Echo Sense (300/300), (Wa) Waterfall Basin Technique (300/300), (Wa) Piercing Torrent (300/300), (Wa) Water Needle Jutsu (300/300), (Wa) Mist Veil (300/300), (Wa) Water Rope Binding (300/300), (F) Ember Flashburst (300/300), (F) Smoldering Palm (300/300), (F) Burning Shuriken Barrage (300/300)
B- (W) Tidal Guillotine (500/500), (Wa) Grasp of the Drowning Sea (500/500), (Wa) Jellyfish Bind (500/500), (Wa) Drilling Hydra Strike (500/500), (Wa) Exploding Bubble Barrage (400/500), (Wa) Rising Water Wall (400/500), (Wa) Water Clone (500/500), (E) Earth Clone (500/500), (E) Stone Avalanche Formation (400/500), (E) Earth Maw Entrapment (500/500), (E) Adamant Pillar Formation (500/500), (Wo) Thorn Trap Bloom (300/500), (Wo) Spinal Lattice Wall (400/500), (Wo) Binding Bark Coffin (300/500), (Wo) Verdant Spear Barrage (300/500), (Wo) Warden's Embrace (300/500), (Wo) Wood Clone (400/500), (F) Crimson Serpent Stream (0/500), (F) Phoenix Brand Spiral (300/500), (F) Ashen Wavefront (300/500), (F) Molten Arc Cannon (300/500), (F) Blazing Lotus Pulse (300/500)
A- Shadow Clone Jutsu (1000/1000), (Wa) Maelstrom Coffin (600/1000), (Wa) Flashflood Surge (600/1000), (E) Iron Bastion (600/1000), (E) Mountains Embrace (800/1000), (Wo) Thorned Vortex Cannon (600/1000), (Wo) Camouflage Canopy Cloak (600/1000), (Wo) Forest Breaker Pillar (400/1000), (Wo) Silent Canopy Execution (600/1000), (F) Flame Emperor's Halo (500/1000), (F) Infernal Barrage Array (500/1000), (F) Hellchain Eruption (500/1000), (F) Cataclysm Fang (500/1000), (F) Sunflare Domain (500/1000)
S- (Wo) Godpiercer Thorn (300/1000)
Genjutsu:
D-Imaginary Illusion Jutsu (100/100)
Taijutsu:
Forbidden- 8 Inner Gates (7000/7000)
A- Strong Fist (700/1000)
B- Maito Guy Special Taijutsu (500/500)
C-Konoha Taijutsu (300/300)
EXP: 0]
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Ember Flashburst]
Rank: C
Description: Fire Release: Ember Flashburst generates a sudden detonation of embers around the user, creating a defensive ring of searing heat that can blind enemies and burn lightly armored foes. Often used to disengage or punish close-range attackers.
Proficiency: 300/300
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Smoldering Palm]
Rank: C
Description: A close-range taijutsu-enhanced jutsu that ignites the user's palm with chakra-based flame. Upon contact, it delivers both concussive and burning damage, making it ideal for countering melee fighters. Proficiency: 300/300
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Burning Shuriken Barrage]
Rank: C
Description: Enhances thrown projectiles with fire chakra, turning basic shuriken into flaming blades. They explode in small bursts upon contact, spreading small embers over a wide area. Effective for area denial or flushing out cover.
Proficiency: 300/300
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Crimson Serpent Stream]
Rank: B
Description: Launches a serpentine stream of fire that tracks a single target for a short duration. Upon contact, it coils around the target and explodes. High chance to disrupt enemy hand signs or charging techniques.
Proficiency: 300/500
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Phoenix Brand Spiral]
Rank: B
Description: Creates a spiral of flame that can be launched or used to wrap around the user for defense. The spiral burns anything it touches and leaves behind temporary flame marks that can be triggered to explode a second time.
Proficiency: 300/500
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Ashen Wavefront]
Rank: B
Description: A forward-casting technique that releases a wave of hot ash capable of smothering flames, blinding enemies, and igniting the area moments after impact. Especially effective in forested or dry terrain.
Proficiency: 300/500
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Molten Arc Cannon]
Rank: B
Description: Fires a concentrated arc of magma-infused fire chakra from the user's hand. The arc maintains both heat and impact force, making it effective against durable defenses or high-chakra enemies. Proficiency: 300/500
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Blazing Lotus Pulse]
Rank: B
Description: Generates a fiery lotus that pulses in all directions after a delay. The delayed explosion makes it ideal for traps or layered combat strategies.
Proficiency: 300/500
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Flame Emperor's Halo]
Rank: A
Description: Summons a floating ring of concentrated fire chakra behind the user. The ring amplifies all fire techniques and can launch solar-like blasts at targets. Consumes high chakra but greatly boosts offensive pressure.
Proficiency: 500/1000
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Infernal Barrage Array]
Rank: A
Description: Summons five fire-laced shadow clones that simultaneously launch coordinated fire streams at enemies. Their combined attack forms a tactical net of flames, designed to trap and overwhelm.
Proficiency: 500/1000
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Hellchain Eruption]
Rank: A Description: Chains of flame erupt from the ground beneath the target's location, binding and incinerating anyone caught. Often used as a finisher or to suppress agile enemies. Very difficult to dodge without forewarning.
Proficiency: 500/1000
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Cataclysm Fang]
Rank: A
Description: Creates a massive, fanged maw of fire that surges from the ground in a linear path. The jutsu is ideal for battlefield control and can penetrate defensive barriers up to mid-rank level.
Proficiency: 500/1000
[Ninjutsu: Fire Release: Sunflare Domain]
Rank: A
Description: A high-tier battlefield technique that bathes a wide area in searing daylight chakra, reducing enemy vision and steadily burning stamina. Used to weaken or scatter opposing forces before full engagement.
Proficiency: 500/1000
…
As I checked my status panel, my eyes paused on the long line of fire jutsu entries—flames and fury, each one a monument to the training I had undergone with Matatabi over the last month of in-game time. She had reshaped my understanding of Fire Release entirely—not as a weapon of brute force, but as an art form of overwhelming pressure, control, and execution.
It was substantial. Essential even, for the identity I now bore in this world—one completely removed from who I once was. This monk persona had no ties to my past, no associations with wood, water, or earth. I was now a fire-style based monk, reborn in flames, wrapped in robes foreign to my former legacy.
I reached into my inner shirt and touched the familiar fabric of Guy's training gear. It was worn and singed now after so long of using it...I guess Lee had multiple of them.
I peeled away the suppression seal stitched under the armpit seam.
Immediately, my chakra surged.
What was once Peak Chunin ballooned past the threshold and comfortably sat at Mid Jonin levels. The difference was immediate: a warmth behind my eyes, a tightness across my skin, a rolling current in my veins. My chakra network roared to life.
With a breath and slight concentration, I activated Mind's Eye of the Kagura.
The world around me lit up in flickers of chakra—blue pulses dancing in the darkness.
Sixty enemies positioned across the encampment—one with Jonin-level chakra, the remaining fifty-nine all Chunin ranked or just below.
I walked forward.
The Fuinjutsu barrier around their perimeter crackled faintly, a circular array of seal lines anchored to crude chakra points. I nearly laughed. The barrier was a joke.
It'd take me less than two seconds to tear it apart.
But I wouldn't need to.
[Fire Release: Flame Emperor's Halo]
A ring of fire formed behind me, spinning silently like a miniature sun, chakra igniting into visible heat waves. It hovered like a burning crown, amplifying every Fire Style technique I touched, cycling energy in a perfect loop. My enemies had no idea that they were already dead.
I tilted my head slightly and tapped the ground.
[Fire Release: Hellchain Eruption]
The ground shivered. Then roared.
Flaming chains burst upward from beneath the camp, dozens of them, like serpents of divine fury erupting through the earth. For each of the fifty-nine Chunin, at least two chains struck—piercing backs, impaling shoulders, wrapping around necks, ankles, and torsos. Screams echoed in all directions, a chorus of agony swallowed by the roaring inferno.
Some tried to flee, but the chains were faster. They launched like whips from molten vents, dragging shinobi off their feet, slamming them into frozen ground or yanking them back into the heart of the blaze. Armor cracked and limbs twisted in angles unnatural and final. Some erupted entirely into flame, their chakra igniting like dry paper soaked in oil.
One by one, they fell—bodies writhing, twitching, then still. The snow turned red, black, then steaming ash beneath the weight of their incineration. Flaming sigils danced across the battlefield, remnants of their futile seals now scorched into useless art.
The stench was suffocating: burned hair, boiled blood, liquefied flesh. Even the trees at the perimeter smoldered as if the very air was turning against them.
And still the Flame Emperor's Halo spun, feeding each chain with relentless power, until silence returned—horrible, absolute.
The stench was indescribable. Burnt hair, cooked meat, melted leather. The snow hissed as their blood and body heat soaked into it.
And still the Flame Emperor's Halo spun behind me, silently feeding the execution.
Only one remained.
The Jonin.
He reacted fast—jumped into the air just before the chains triggered, using wind chakra to stay above the detonation radius. But I had chosen not to attack him. Now he stood alone, surrounded by charred corpses and ruined earth, facing a shinobi wrapped in glowing fire.
I let him see me.
I walked forward through the barrier—it popped like a soap bubble as I passed. Nothing left to guard.
"What... what even are you?" he muttered, eyes wide with confusion as he stared at the wreckage and the ring of fire spinning behind me. "That kind of power—those flames—I didn't even know that was possible" stammered, reaching for his kunai.
I held up a hand, and the Halo flared.
I said, "There's a reason I left you alive."
"Why." He asked, still in shock.
I replied, "Because I know you're with Dark Dream. I want to meet a Guild Master."
His eyes widened. "Then... you'll let me live?"
I smiled a little, and said in a cheery voice, "Nope. Tell them in the real world."
Then I stabbed a kunai into his heart.
His body dropped in silence, the kunai embedded deep in his heart, steam rising from the wound as the last breath fled his lungs.
The chains hissed as they retracted into the scorched earth, leaving behind a ravaged encampment of twisted ground and broken terrain. The bodies were still there—charred black and curled inward, but unmistakably human in their final, frozen poses. Gear and satchels lay scattered across the snow, half-melted kunai and scorched scrolls poking out from what remained of their owners. The snow continued to fall, blanketing corpses in delicate white, as if nature itself was trying to erase what had just occurred.
I stood calm amidst it all, the Flame Emperor's Halo spinning slowly at my back, its oppressive heat rippling the air around me in defiance of the cold.
Inside a vast chamber lined wall-to-wall with towering cylindrical VR immersion pods, a man suddenly opened his eyes.
The translucent fluid in which he floated began to churn as he moved, his hand drifting to the emergency panel nestled just beside his thigh.
With a swift tap of the button, the pod responded. The internal systems roared to life, draining the oxygen-rich fluid, deactivating the neural feed, and initiating the automated drying process that licked across his skin in sterile bursts of warm air.
Within seconds, the pod's outer shell slid open with a hiss, releasing a faint mist into the cold, metallic air of the chamber. The man stepped out barefoot onto the polished platform, water trailing in faint ripples behind him. He didn't spare a glance at the other pods, though dozens were occupied—silent players deep in immersion, unaware of the disturbance.
He moved quickly, feet slapping against steel flooring as he climbed the emergency access stairwell leading to the level above.
The hallways were dim and quiet, lined with security drones and inactive monitors. At the top, he approached a wide reception space occupied by a sleek desk, its surface aglow with thin-screen data projections. A woman sat behind it, focused on her work.
"How can I help you?" she asked without looking up, fingers dancing across her touchscreen. "The Guild Master is currently busy."
The man's breath was steady but urgent. "I just got killed in the Land of Iron near the capital. I am the Team Leader of the 33rd Group. My entire squad was wiped out by a single shinobi. He was a player."
That made her pause.
The rhythmic sound of typing halted. Slowly, she raised her gaze to meet his. Her eyes, lined with light fatigue, examined him—head to toe, expression unreadable.
A flicker of subtle recognition passed behind her composed exterior. She leaned back slightly, opened a small drawer beneath the desk, and withdrew a plain neural visor.
Without a word, she placed the device over her head, reclined into her chair, and remained still for a full minute.
The man waited patiently, standing tall with a soldier's discipline. He didn't fidget or speak again.
Whatever she was doing, he understood it was protocol—one that ensured the Guild Master wasn't interrupted needlessly.
A soft beep signaled the end of the synchronization.
The secretary removed the visor and returned it to the drawer. She nodded once.
"The Guild Master is logging out," she said evenly, her fingers once again gliding across the surface of the desk.
With a muted chime, the double doors to her left slid open, revealing a dark corridor lit with ambient red lines across the floor.
"You may go in."
The man exhaled quietly and stepped forward.
The corridor swallowed him in silence. Ahead, another door stood wide, the metal inscribed in bold silver letters:
[GuildMaster of Dark Dream]
...
Authors note:
You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator