Bruised, battered, and half dizzy from the fall, Tanjiro still managed to drag himself out of the pit.
His face was swollen. His clothes were torn in several places. Fresh cuts and scrapes stung all over his body. Even so, the look in his eyes remained steady.
"Asuramaru... thank you for warning ."
Hearing that, Alex could only fall silent for a mont.
Then he said, "The entire path down the mountain is lined with traps. If you keep charging ahead like that, you are just asking to die."
Only then did Tanjiro truly understand how cruel this so called trial was.
Alex continued, "There may be traps everywhere, but isn't your sense of sll supposed to be sharp? Anything set by human hands will leave a trace. The ropes, the disturbed soil, the bamboo, the wood, even the hands that placed them. They all leave behind a scent."
Tanjiro's eyes lit up at once.
"I understand now. Asuramaru, thank you!"
He steadied his breathing, emptied his mind, and focused everything on his nose.
The mountain air rushed into his lungs. Damp earth. Moss. Old bark. Wild grass. Fog. Night dew.
And beneath all of that, hidden in layers, were traces that did not belong.
Human scent.
Rope fibers.
Freshly bent bamboo.
Recently disturbed ground.
Tanjiro opened his eyes and moved forward with far greater caution. Before long, he noticed a stalk of bamboo near the ground, bent at an unnatural angle and tied down with rope. If he had stepped on it carelessly, whatever was connected to it would have launched at him imdiately.
A chill crawled down his spine.
"Do not relax," Alex said at once. "Keep moving."
Tanjiro nodded and continued down the mountain.
With his sense of sll guiding him, he began identifying more and more traps before triggering them. Yet knowing they were there and actually avoiding them were two completely different things. His body simply could not keep up with everything he sensed.
Again and again, he nearly escaped only to be clipped by so hidden chanism.
A swinging log scraped his shoulder.
A concealed snare nearly yanked him off his feet.
Sharp stones and hidden pitfalls left new wounds across his body.
Every ti Tanjiro stumbled into another trap, the familiar system notification rang inside Alex's mind.
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro Kamado. Obtained 7 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro Kamado. Obtained 6 Emotion Points!]
[Ding! Negative emotions detected from Tanjiro Kamado. Obtained 8 Emotion Points!]
The more miserable Tanjiro beca, the more cheerful Alex felt.
This trip down the mountain was practically a harvest festival.
At last, after a long and painful struggle through the darkness, Tanjiro reached the wooden cabin at the foot of the mountain. He shoved the door open and staggered inside.
He was so exhausted he nearly collapsed at the entrance.
Looking at Sakonji Urokodaki, who was inside the cabin watching over the sleeping Nezuko, Tanjiro forced the words out with great effort.
"I'm... back."
For the first ti, the expression beneath Sakonji's tengu mask seed to stiffen.
He had truly not expected Tanjiro to return this quickly.
According to his estimate, making it back before dawn would already have been surprising. Returning this early was another matter entirely.
After a mont of silence, Sakonji said, "I acknowledge you, Tanjiro Kamado."
That one sentence was enough.
The mont he heard it, all the tension left Tanjiro's body at once. He could not hold on any longer and fell straight into a deep sleep.
...
The next day, on Mount Sagiri, Sakonji finally began to explain the path that lay ahead.
"Demons have existed since ancient tis," he said in his slow, asured voice. "The Demon Slayer Corps is an organization unknown to the public and unrecognized by the governnt, yet it has hunted demons in the shadows for generations."
He paused.
"As for , I am a trainer. A man who forges swordsn."
Tanjiro listened in silence.
"If you want to join the Demon Slayer Corps, then you must survive the Final Selection held on Mount Fujikasane. Whether or not you are qualified to take that test will be decided by . If you prove worthy, then from this day onward, I will personally train you."
Tanjiro answered without a trace of hesitation.
"All right!"
And so the long, grueling training began.
Days turned into months.
Months turned into years.
Before Tanjiro fully realized it, two years had passed.
During that ti, he endured relentless physical training and learned how to breathe properly, how to move with efficiency, and how to wield the sword with precision. Under Sakonji's guidance, he grasped the Water Breathing forms one by one, refining them through constant practice until they gradually beca part of him.
Those two years changed him completely.
The boy who had first climbed Mount Sagiri with grief and desperation in his heart slowly beca soone sharper, calr, stronger.
And on the day Sakonji finally recognized him, he gifted Tanjiro a fox mask.
At the sa ti, Alex received his own trendous gain.
"System. Open the personal panel."
[Host: Alex]
[Template: Asuramaru]
[Demon Power: 100]
[Innate Buff: Eternal Grade Buff: Indestructible]
[Template Abilities:]
[Blood Weeping: Unlocked]
[Devour: Unlocked]
[Healing: Unlocked]
[Body Control: Unlocked]
[Feedback: Can distribute part of the power gained through devouring to the Sword Master and strengthen their physical body. Unlock requirent: 10,000 Emotion Points]
[Demon Curse: Attacks can attach a demonic curse that inflicts poison. Unlock requirent: 10,000 Emotion Points]
[Sky Control: Can control the blade to fly. Unlock requirent: 10,000 Emotion Points]
[Demonization: Can pour a large amount of Demon Power into the Sword Master, granting an all around enhancent with no theoretical upper limit. Unlock requirent: 30,000 Emotion Points]
...
[Golden Horn: Blowing it activates the Seraph of the End form, code na Salt King. Unlock requirent: 500,000 Emotion Points]
[Emotion Points: 8000]
Alex stared at the panel.
There were plenty of useful basic abilities, but none of them drew his attention more than the final one.
Golden Horn.
Just reading the description was enough to make his thoughts race. If that thing truly activated a Seraph form, then it would be a completely absurd trump card. Forget ordinary demons. If he had that, he could probably cut down anything in his path.
The problem was obvious.
Five hundred thousand Emotion Points.
That number was outrageous.
There was also another issue Alex could not help complaining about.
"I do like the Golden Horn," he muttered, "but that is not even one of Asuramaru's original abilities."
Even so, he had to admit one thing.
This system really was reliable.
At the thought of heading to Mount Fujikasane tomorrow for the Final Selection, Alex could barely contain his excitent.
Over the past two years, Tanjiro had given him a steady stream of Emotion Points, but steady was not the sa as fast. Compared to harvesting from actual demon kills, the efficiency was still lacking.
And Mount Fujikasane would have demons everywhere.
Which ant only one thing.
A feast.
Alex's killing intent rose almost uncontrollably.
"This ti," he thought, "there is only one principle."
"Kill every last one of them."
"No demon leaves alive."
Still, before going in, it was better to strengthen himself a little more.
Since arriving in this world, he had not used the gacha system even once.
So he chose the Golden Roulette and went for eight draws in one go.
[Ding! 8000 Emotion Points consud. Beginning draw...]
[Congratulations! You have obtained: Silver Ability: Perfect Match]
[Silver Ability: Arm Extension]
[Gold Ability: Perception]
[Silver Ability: Sharpness]
[Thank you for playing]
[Thank you for playing]
[Thank you for playing]
[Thank you for playing]
Eight draws.
Four abilities. Four blanks.
Exactly half and half.
Alex did not know whether that counted as good luck or bad luck, since this was his first ti drawing, but the results were decent enough.
Perfect Match made whoever wielded him feel that he was their ideal weapon.
Arm Extension would make him feel like a natural extension of the user's body.
Perception was even better. It ant he could directly sense his surroundings.
And Sharpness was self explanatory. No sword ever complained about becoming sharper.
All things considered, it was not a loss.
Preparations were complete.
Now all that remained was the slaughter.
The next day, Tanjiro set out for Mount Fujikasane.
He wore the fox mask Sakonji had given him and a blue kimono patterned with white clouds. Alex hung at his waist. Before leaving, Tanjiro looked one last ti at Nezuko, who had remained in a deep sleep for the past two years without showing any sign of waking.
He also left behind the Nichirin Blade he had used during training.
Then, after saying farewell to Sakonji, he headed straight for the mountain.
By the ti he arrived, dusk was settling over the land.
The slopes around Mount Fujikasane were covered in blooming wisteria flowers, spreading outward in a vast sea of violet. The scene was beautiful enough to seem unreal, especially beneath the dimming evening light.
At the foot of the mountain, more than twenty participants were already gathered.
All of them were swordsn.
All of them had co for the Final Selection.
Then the entrance opened, and two small girls stepped forward side by side. They looked almost identical, except one had black hair and the other white. Each carried a lantern, and when they spoke, their voices overlapped with eerie precision.
"Thank you all for coming to tonight's Final Selection for the Demon Slayer Corps."
"Within Mount Fujikasane are many demons captured alive by Demon Slayers. Your task is simple. Enter the mountain and survive for seven days. Those who live through it will pass the Final Selection."
"Please, have a safe journey."
The mont he heard that, Alex was already growing impatient.
"Tanjiro," he urged, unable to restrain himself, "what are you standing around for? Get in there. I cannot wait to start the killing."
Tanjiro gave a simple response.
"All right."
Without any hesitation, he beca the first to charge into Mount Fujikasane.
Alex's voice rang excitedly at his side.
"Tanjiro, you do not want all the people who ca here for the Final Selection to die inside this mountain, do you?"
"Then co on. Join in slaughtering every man eating demon in there."
"For creatures like them, death is a kind of salvation."
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