Chapter 112: Side Quest
The next day, the sun had just begun to rise.
Arthur stood in front of the mirror in his hotel room, the reflections of his many training sessions still fresh in his mind.
He had made advances with his smoke techniques, yes, but each step he took only highlighted how lacking his entire arsenal truly was.
As impressive as the smoke techniques had become, they represented only a piece of a much larger puzzle. He had once believed he could offset this imbalance through sheer creativity, but that notion felt hollow against foes powered with the kind of strength and tenacity he had faced recently.
Almost as if echoing this thought, he remembered his humiliating defeat at the hands of Jasper and his Tool Creation technique—one that seemed to morph and adapt under the strain of innovation.
That particular player, who harboured the original skills of the Naruto universe, could craft tools and weapons from nothing but his chakra.
The realization was enough to eat at Arthur, who had not been resilient to such devices.
While he had concocted new techniques, two things dawned on him: they lacked the kind of foundational strength that came from long time-bred skills, and they would falter easily against anything utilizing a source as dynamic and crafty as Gelel energy—a power Jasper had wielded to an unpleasant effect.
Arthur's brow furrowed in thought.
Jasper's technique blended with Gelel energy had rendered its weaponry immune to chakra absorption and was nonsensical to most shinobi skills.
For Arthur's arsenal to hold any potency against such unique creations, he needed a corresponding enhancement, some edge that could rival what Jasper had, if not exceed it.