Some time later, Natsuya finished her tea and left.Seiji continued drinking his tea and waited for others to arrive.
Mika, Kaede, Yukari, Kazuko, Kaho, and Hisas.h.i.+ arrived at his place in that order.
Hos.h.i.+ was busy with his part-time job and couldn"t come. Surprisingly, Hisas.h.i.+ had the time to come over.
Hisas.h.i.+ and Kaede"s father, Michirou Juumonji, had left the hospital and returned to their main residence, taking over the duties of running the Juumonji Mafia group again.
This meant that Hisas.h.i.+ no longer had his heavy responsibilities, and could go back to being an otaku gamer all day… such a thing didn"t happen at all.
Actually, Michirou could have returned long ago. But after seeing that Hisas.h.i.+ was doing such a good job running the Juumonji Mafia, Michirou decided to spend some more time resting in the hospital.
After he finally left the hospital, he used the excuse of needing to rest up to only take back part of his original duties—and this was only because Hisas.h.i.+ strongly requested him to do so.
After the knight order members gathered and had a strategy conference, they put on their combat equipment and finished their preparations for entering Kazuko"s Domain.
Likely due to the Realm of Cherry Blossoms" influence, the difficulty of the monsters in the Domain had obviously risen.
In the very first battle against mob monsters, King level Sakura samurai appeared in the first wave. After that, the boss battles involved not only Sakura samurai armies and tree demons, but also a Sakura female demon!
With the Sakura female demon"s buff effects for the other samurai, the army"s combat strength was improved to a whole different level. Since there were also many tree demons, the knight order members felt severe pressure facing against them.
Seiji helped out and also had Kaho release her ma.s.sive AOE insect swarm attack. Only then was everyone able to stop the first monster wave"s ferocious attacks.
Everyone fought their hardest and slowly got closer to the Sakura female demon. Yukari and Mika then used a combination attack to ambush and slay the Sakura female demon by using black spiderweb and Mika"s signature Dimension Shattering Jade.
After the Sakura female demon was killed, the Sakura samurai army was instantly weakened. This allowed the insect swarm to devour the entire army.
Without the large number of weaker monsters hara.s.sing them, it became much easier for the knight order members to deal with the remaining elite monsters.
In the second wave of monster attacks, even more King level demons appeared. That wasn"t much of a problem still, but the issue was that three Sakura female demons appeared together with the final bosses for the second wave!
Luckily, it appeared that their buff effects weren"t exactly overlapping for the Sakura samurai army. Seiji estimated that if one Sakura female demon buffed all Sakura samurai"s stats by +10%, then the three Sakura female demons" buffs stacked together roughly buffed the Sakura samurai"s stats by about 15%.
Still, this was rather troublesome. Seiji had to support Kaho using his Mana so that she could send out an even larger and stronger insect swarm. Only then was everyone able to withstand the Sakura samurai army.
Seiji then increased the degree of his helping out in the battle. He singlehandedly slew numerous General and King level demons, along with several tree demons and a Sakura female demon.
In the third wave of monster attacks, more tree demons appeared yet again. During the boss battle stage, a new type of monster, Sakura Mist Demon, appeared!
Just as the name suggested, Sakura Mist Demons had bodies of corporeal mist. They were shaped like gigantic humanoids, and moved by floating around. Their danger level was cla.s.sified as "evil demon".
These demons were individually stronger than tree demons or Sakura female demons. Not only that, these Mist Demons were completely immune to physical attacks! Basically, only spiritual magic attacks could harm them. These Mist Demons could also split themselves or reform their bodies. They were also capable of devouring allied Sakura samurai when they were weak to recover.
When the individual Sakura Mist Demon approached, Seiji decisively greeted it with his [Demon Suppression Bell] as a welcoming gift!
He had instantly judged that n.o.body on his team could handle the Mist Demon except for himself. If he didn"t kill this monster immediately, it was highly likely that one of his companions would be severely injured, or even worse.
The pitiful Mist Demon was instantly vaporized upon arrival because Seiji considered it to be too strong. It didn"t even get a chance to show off its abilities.
Everyone in the knight order was exhausted after the training in the Domain ended.
Rather than physical fatigue, they felt more mental fatigue.
This round of training had given them far too much pressure. If it wasn"t for Seiji"s presence, they would have retreated already during the first monster wave. It was certain that they would have all been defeated or even died without Seiji"s presence.
While Seiji"s companions were so tired that they had no energy to speak, Seiji was having a great time. He had obtained a bountiful harvest of Inner World Crystals!
The normal Sakura samurai demons dropped 83 crystals. The General demons dropped 46. The Kings dropped 7. The tree demons dropped 12. The Sakura female demons dropped 3. And, the lone Mist Demon dropped 1 crystal. The evidence proved that an increased difficulty would also increase the overall number and quality of the dropped crystals!
But, it was also possible that this was all due to the Realm of Cherry Blossoms" influence… Seiji decided to try training in the domain tomorrow again. If it was indeed true that an increased difficulty would increase the dropped loot, then he would increase the difficulty by as much everyone could handle.
Seiji brought the Inner World Crystals into his room, opened up his system, chose [Furniture] from its menu, and exchanged for furniture he felt was necessary for his [Spirit House].
After he finished his purchase, he counted the remaining crystals, and then walked out of his room back to the living room.
"Who"s free tonight?" Seiji asked all his companions who were still gathered there.
Later that night.
The knight order members that trained in the Domain earlier today were gathered together once more. Hos.h.i.+ was here as well.
Natsuya, Hitaka, and Rana also arrived.
It was the first time for Yukari and many of the other members to meet the cute cat girl Rana. They all wanted to approach her, but Rana avoided them as if she was an actual cat.
Although n.o.body succeeded in getting close to her, they all felt that Rana was really cute.
"As expected of the legendary creature in our school," Yukari commented.
Then, right in front of everyone, Seiji opened the door to his [Spirit House]!
Everyone witnessed a gray crack magically appear in midair. This crack opened up into an oval shape, which had a black and white Yin Yang diagram spinning inside. This gave everything a mystical air.
Seiji walked through the teleportation portal first.
Natsuya, Hitaka, and Rana followed after. Then, Mika, Kaede, Yukari, Hos.h.i.+, Hisas.h.i.+, Kazuko, and Kaho followed—in that order. Mai was the last to enter.
"Welcome to my personal dimension." Seiji extended his palms towards everyone as they arrived in the living room of his [Spirit House].
Tatami mats covered the floor, and a wooden round table was in the center of the room. A beautiful teapot and numerous teacups were set on the table. White lanterns were hanging from the walls and ceiling, while giving off a gentle orange glow.
A wooden horizontal pull style door was to the right, with a sign that said "Dojo" on the door. To the left were two wooden doors. One door had a sign saying "Restroom", while the other sign said "Warehouse".
There was nothing else apart from these few rooms in the [Spirit House].
"As I"ve said before, it"s relatively simple. What"s important is what we can do here." Seiji walked towards the right and opened up the door to the dojo, entering inside.
Everyone followed after him. They saw that the dojo had wooden flooring and lanterns as illumination.
Right across from the door was a large watercolor painting hanging from the wall!
Three figures with their back turned to the viewer were within the painting. The person in the middle was a Yin Yang Master with a talisman in hand, wearing white hunting attire. The leftmost person was a samurai who wore pitch-black armor and held a longsword in his hand. The rightmost person was a woman who wore beautiful clothing and held a paper umbrella.
The three of them were observing falling flower petals before them as if there was something there. They seemed to be facing off against something, giving the painting an aura of tension… Suddenly, the painting seemed to become animated, just as if it wasn"t a painting, but rather a dimensional portal right into those three"s world.
This was a Spirit Image!
And, it was an incredibly high-quality Spirit Image… While Mika and the others had no idea, Natsuya and her two Spirit-branded Retainers could tell that this Spirit Image for cultivation was far higher quality than any they had ever seen before! Just seeing this made the three want to enter Visualization right here and now.
"How did you obtain this Spirit Image?" Natsuya couldn"t help but ask.
She was already astonished enough that Seiji had been able to craft his personal dimension into something like an actual place to live in. What was going on with this super high-quality Spirit Image? Where did he obtain it from? Who drew it?
"It was created by itself." Seiji awkwardly scratched his face. "I"m not sure how it was created… I wanted one, so my dimension created it."
Natsuya was rendered speechless.
"It was useless to even ask. I should just give up trying to understand what he can do," she mentally commented to herself.
All the others were absorbed in looking at this incredible seemingly alive painting. They naturally stared at it, feeling like it was constantly enlarging, with the picture appearing ever closer, more colorful, and more realistic…
Suddenly, something in the atmosphere changed! Seiji received a system notification that numerous people were now in the middle of cultivating in his dojo. This would also cost him an amount of crystals he had stored up in his warehouse.
Looking at his companions, he saw that every single person present, except for Natsuya, was quietly looking at the Spirit Image and giving off mysterious aura. It was obvious that they had all entered a special realm.
They were all undergoing Visualization… it was amazing that they all had successfully entered Visualization, something supposed to be highly difficult, with just a single look! Wasn"t great concentration supposed to be required for Visualization?
His system"s Spirit Image was even more effective than Seiji had antic.i.p.ated.
This was a good thing. Still, with so many people standing here standing still as if they were all hypnotized zombies, it did appear a little strange.
Natsuya was shocked to her core once again to see that not only Hitaka, Rana, and Mai, but even Mika and all the newbies that didn"t know what a Spirit Image was had all successfully entered Visualization.
This Spirit Image… what the h.e.l.l was it!?