Chapter 184
On the thirtieth floor of the Dungeon, the air rippled almost imperceptibly as Kiriya reappeared.
"Finally, I’m back."
He looked around the familiar cavern and rubbed his lower back, surprised by how much he had missed the place.
Crack. Crack.
Stone split apart across the ceiling, floor, and walls as one monster after another crawled out.
Kiriya had spent several months in the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, surrounded by curses that looked as though they had crawled out of someone’s worst fever dream.
Compared with those things, the Dungeon’s monsters almost looked normal.
"I’m in a hurry today, so I don’t have time to play."
He raised his hands.
"Let’s end this quickly."
"Water Release: Severing Wave—Fission."
Kiriya rapidly formed a sequence of hand seals before releasing a thin stream of water from his mouth.
The enormous water pressure had been compressed into a single narrow blade.
It shot forward at tremendous speed, then split.
One became two.
Two became four.
Four became dozens.
Within moments, countless high-pressure water blades filled the cavern, crossing distances of over a hundred meters as they curved toward every monster in their path.
Bodies were pierced and sliced apart before the creatures could react.
Soon, every monster had vanished into ash, leaving only a field of magic stones behind as proof they had ever existed.
"This turned out even better than I expected."
Kiriya nodded in satisfaction.
While in the Jujutsu Kaisen world, he had not limited himself to hunting curses and developing the Lightning Release: Rasengan Railgun.
He had also begun improving the Water Release: Severing Wave.
Severing Wave was an advanced Water Release technique created by the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
It compressed water into a high-pressure stream sharp enough to cut through steel.
It was fast, powerful, and extremely lethal.
However, it had one obvious weakness.
Its attacks usually traveled in a straight line.
The user could either focus it on a single point or sweep it sideways like an absurdly long blade, but the attack path remained predictable.
A fast opponent could evade it, while scattered enemies might slip through the gaps.
Kiriya had wanted to correct that weakness for some time.
During his friendly visit to the Kamo clan, he had observed their inherited Blood Manipulation technique and remembered a far more advanced application that would appear decades later: the ability to split Piercing Blood without sacrificing its speed, allowing the projectiles to pursue several targets and curve through the air.
That had given him exactly the inspiration he needed.
As usual, Kiriya had borrowed the Gojo-brand supercomputer to accelerate the calculations required to build the technique’s model.
They soon discovered that achieving the effect Kiriya wanted required two things.
First, he needed sensory abilities strong enough to identify and lock onto multiple targets simultaneously.
That part was easy. With Energy Perception, he did not need to rely on his eyes to track enemies.
The second requirement was far more difficult.
He needed enough processing power to continuously calculate and correct the path of every water blade while they moved at extreme speed.
The calculations required were astronomical.
At the time, Kiriya’s mental strength had been insufficient.
Every attempt ended in failure, which was why he had never dared use the unfinished technique against powerful enemies like Geto.
Fortunately, he had recently awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan.
The evolution had caused his mental strength and processing ability to surge dramatically, instantly removing the greatest obstacle that had held him back.
The improved Severing Wave was finally usable.
"Hehehe. I really am a genius."
Kiriya gathered the magic stones and poured them into a small pouch he had prepared in advance.
He was about to begin making his way back toward the upper floors when he encountered someone he had not expected to see.
"Well, look what we have here."
A relatively short cat person stood in his path, staring at him with fierce eyes.
"If it isn’t the famous Sylvan."
The words sounded less like praise and more like a challenge.
"What happened? You haven’t been down here long, and you’re already heading back up?"
He sneered.
"Is that all you can handle?"
The man was Allen Fromel, vice-captain of the Freya Familia and one of the few Level 6 adventurers in Orario.
He was better known by his alias, Vana Freya.
Kiriya raised an eyebrow.
As far as he remembered, he had never offended this guy.
So why did Allen sound as though he had been waiting all day for an excuse to start a fight?
Kiriya had no idea that he had already become infamous within the Freya Familia.
Every member of that Familia was fanatically devoted to Freya. They practically worshipped the ground beneath her feet.
Having to watch their beloved goddess openly obsess over some strange human naturally drove them insane with jealousy.
They had wanted to challenge Kiriya for some time, if only to discover what made him worthy of receiving so much of Freya’s attention.
Unfortunately, their goddess had forbidden them from approaching him, forcing them to keep their anger bottled up.
Now Allen had encountered Kiriya alone in the Dungeon.
Of course he had nothing pleasant to say.
Kiriya knew none of this.
Nor was he the kind of person who wasted time wondering what he had done to deserve someone else’s hostility.
If Allen wanted to be rude, Kiriya saw no reason to remain polite.
"Huh?"
Kiriya rose onto the tips of his toes and looked around in exaggerated confusion.
"Did someone say something?"
He turned his head from side to side.
"That’s strange. I don’t see anyone."
"You bastard!"
Allen’s ears stood upright as his fur bristled in rage.
Because of his short stature, Allen had been mocked about his height far too many times.
The subject had long since become a particularly sensitive nerve.
Seeing a mere Level 3 adventurer mock him so openly made him decide that Kiriya needed to be taught a painful lesson.
’No one else is here.’
’As long as neither of us says anything, no one will ever find out.’
Allen was not worried about Kiriya reporting the incident.
The man had his pride, after all. Surely he would not run around Orario announcing that someone had beaten him senseless.
With that thought, Allen lowered his spear and charged.
He expected Kiriya to draw his sword as he had in his previous battles.
Instead, Kiriya raised his empty hands, apparently intending to fight him barehanded.
At the same time, his black eyes turned red, an intricate black pinwheel forming across each crimson iris.
"Idiot!"
The apparent disrespect burned away the last of Allen’s restraint.
He would make sure Kiriya never forgot this humiliation.
Then Kiriya formed hand seals.
"Water Release: Severing Wave—Fission."
A thin stream of water shot from his mouth.
It split repeatedly in midair before surrounding Allen from the front, rear, left, right, above, and below.
The water looked almost delicate, as though a single punch could scatter it.
Allen’s instincts told him otherwise.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Allen accelerated, weaving between the converging blades while rapidly spinning his spear and smashing apart any he could not avoid.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The impacts sent violent shocks through the weapon and into his arms.
Allen’s expression changed.
’How can something that looks so thin hit this hard?’
"Ooh, not bad."
Kiriya grinned.
"Let’s see how many more you can handle."
He formed another series of hand seals.
"Water Release: Severing Wave—Fission."
Allen stared at the fresh storm of water blades surrounding him.
’What the actual fuck?’