CHAPTER 104: CHAPTER 104: AN ABSURD FOURTH STAGE—FUSING WITH THE NINE-TAILS’ CHAKRA!

[Ding—Wheel of Fate is spinning—]

[Main Quest: Fourth Stage Activated]

[Quest Title]: The Final Answer of the World

[Quest Description]: You have overcome countless trials and reshaped the landscape of Orario. Now, it’s your turn to stand at the pinnacle of this world and become the Supreme One—transcending even the gods.

[Completion Requirement]: Establish a singular belief system as a non-divine being, replace the existing divine order, forge a new worldview, and gain the recognition of the entire DanMachi world.

[Quest Reward]: Unknown

Ryota froze.

The moment the system’s notification rang in his head, his mind felt like someone had slammed the pause button. It took a few full seconds before his brain could reboot.

"...What?"

His eye twitched, and his pupils began to shrink uncontrollably.

Ryota’s mind rapidly flashed through everything that had happened since arriving in this world.

He’d joined the Loki Familia as an Adventurer, starting from scratch in a land he didn’t belong to.

He had once been nothing more than a pawn in the games of the gods, but had led his Familia to victory in a War Game and cleared the 58th floor—a floor even the Loki Familia had never broken through.

That much, he could understand. He’d lived it.

But now the system was telling him—

He had to establish a singular belief system as a non-god?

And get the entire world to recognize it?

"What the hell is this?!"

"This isn’t a main quest—this is a damn world reset!"

From establishing identity,

to breaking free from fate;

from shattering the rules,

to leading the powerful—

And now, to ascend to the highest peak.

This so-called main quest path was both crystal clear and maddeningly vague.

Ryota rubbed his temples.

—Just a few lines, yet the amount of information packed into them was absolutely ridiculous.

And let’s be real—this wasn’t some low-magic, low-power fantasy setting.

This was DanMachi.

A world where gods walked among mortals, and a living Dungeon existed beneath their feet.

The deities only came down because the heavens were too boring. But that didn’t mean the gods were powerless decorations.

That establish a singular belief system and replace the divine order objective?

Ryota could only think one thing:

Are you freaking kidding me?!

Even if you put the gods aside for a moment, this world had one more terrifying threat looming over everything—

The Black Dragon.

That thing wasn’t some mid-tier boss. It was a cataclysm-level threat.

It annihilated every elite in the Hera Familia and the Zeus Familia.

Back then, the two most powerful Familia had joined forces—complete with Level 9s and 8s among their ranks.

And the result? Not even bones were left.

Worse yet, the Black Dragon wasn’t just any monster—it was created by the Dungeon itself, and completely immune to divine power.

It possessed strength far beyond the imaginable and could command the entire dragon species. A true, bonafide "Dragon King."

Sure, it had escaped a thousand years ago, and Albert—Ais’s father—managed to destroy one of its eyes. Eventually, it was sealed away in the Dragon’s Valley by the ancient elf Aria, who sacrificed herself to do so.

But make no mistake—it was still absurdly powerful.

Ryota looked up at the empty ceiling above and twitched the corner of his mouth.

Right now, the Loki Familia had only reached the 58th floor.

There were still many levels of unexplored depths between them and that nightmare.

Any way you looked at it, it was a journey with no visible end.

He sprawled out on the bed, staring at the ceiling, and sighed.

"...System, could you not drop all the pressure on me at once?"

Even as he complained aloud, Ryota had already begun calculating in his heart.

No matter how insane or unreasonable the system’s quests were, work still needed to be done.

Non-god.

Singular belief system.

Black Dragon...

These threads tangled together like a vast, inescapable web—a trap set by fate itself.

"I need to figure out the right place to start..."

"A non-god creating a Falna system? That’s impossible!"

"Do I need to leave the Loki Familia first?"

But just as Ryota was feeling completely lost—

[Ding—Chakra Fruit fusion progress +1%]

[Current Progress: 1%]

"!!!?"

Ryota practically shot up straight in bed.

A scorching heat stirred deep in his consciousness, like a sealed flame had just flickered to life.

He flipped his wrist and held up a mirror.

Reflected within wasn’t just the familiar, complex pattern of the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan.

At the very center of his pupils—faintly—a rippling pattern was beginning to surface.

It looked like some deliberately hidden symbol, slowly rising from the depths of his awareness.

Ryota blinked.

Sure enough, as his emotions shifted, that pattern trembled slightly, as if reacting to his realization.

"...Weird."

He murmured under his breath.

"All I did was think about how to approach the main quest."

Standing by the window, he tapped his fingers unconsciously.

"But the fusion progress still increased by 1%."

He quickly reviewed every detail of what had just happened, trying to find the link.

At that exact moment, he had been contemplating how to tackle the absurd yet colossal objective of the singular belief system.

Could it be...

"This thing... is a hidden passive quest?"

"As long as I make a certain shift in perception?"

"Or—so long as I’m thinking and working toward the right path of fate..."

"The fusion progress increases—naturally?"

But then, a more conventional theory came to mind.

"Or maybe it’s just one of those passive time-based systems?"

"Like a countdown—it’ll keep increasing no matter what I do, and eventually power me up."

He considered both possibilities carefully—then tossed out the second one.

He knew his system way too well.

This thing was even more hardcore than he was!

Besides, that feeling just now wasn’t some timer ticking up. It didn’t feel like passively gaining XP either.

It felt more like...

"It’s watching me."

"Like it’s... evaluating whether I’m aligning with its standards."

Ryota looked down at the Chakra swirling in his palm and took a deep breath.

"So in other words—every meaningful moment of growth, every breakthrough, insight, or choice..."

"Might awaken it."

With that thought, his eyes sharpened.

The Chakra Fruit fusion wasn’t just a basic exchange mechanism—it was a higher-level transformation, deeply tied to his will.

Speculation was fine and all.

But dreams remained dreams until you acted.

He had to knock on the door himself to know what lay beyond.

"If growth is the key to awakening it—then let’s test that now."

With that, he focused his consciousness on the third-stage reward—the special Nine-Tails Chakra.

A reward from the previous branch quest.

The system had simply summarized it as "+10%," but Ryota knew that figure was deceptive.

Tailed Beast Chakra was fundamentally different from Hashirama Cells or Sage Chakra.

This stuff was alive. It had a will of its own!

And the Nine-Tails wasn’t just any Tailed Beast—it was the king of them all, with the greatest Chakra reserves, the most destructive combat power, and the hardest to tame.

In the original series, it was central to the entire Naruto storyline.

From a feral beast inside young Naruto to an eventual comrade and source of strength.

Everyone knew—its power could raze nations.

And right now, it was sleeping inside Ryota.

So quiet... it was like a beast that had already been killed.

But Ryota knew better. It wasn’t dead.

It was waiting.

Watching him—its new host—deciding whether he was worthy of receiving its power.

"Kurama, huh?"

Ryota slowly closed his eyes.

"Let’s see what you’re really like."

——

His awareness sank abruptly, like his soul had been yanked into an invisible current.

A blinding white flash.

Ryota was flung from a rift in space.

As he opened his eyes, damp air greeted him instantly.

Drip... drip... the sound of water droplets echoed around him.

The light was dim. A faint Chakra mist drifted in the air.

Everything around him was pitch black. Nothing on either side.

He stepped forward, and the water rippled beneath his foot.

Then, he looked up—and saw a scene he couldn’t be more familiar with.

Directly ahead stood a giant seal gate.

Massive bars crisscrossed into a cage, a sealing tag with the word "Seal" glowing red at its center.

Behind the bars, a colossal beast lay curled up, dozing.

Its massive fox body was covered in thick orange fur.

Nine enormous tails coiled like mountains around it, rising and falling with every breath.

Ryota stopped, staring at the legendary monster inside.

As if sensing an unfamiliar presence, the beast suddenly opened its eyes.

Two vertical crimson pupils, like blood-red stars, snapped open!

The space around him trembled.

That gaze—brimming with destruction and distrust—pierced through the bars and locked onto Ryota.

"..."

Kurama blinked. Its expression was filled with the typical pride and impatience of a Tailed Beast.

It tilted its head and said,

"...Hey, kid."

"I was dragged here for no damn reason."

"I don’t see any familiar faces, and you... you don’t even have that guy’s scent."

Its pupils narrowed coldly.

"Who are you?"

"Why the hell am I here?"

Ryota’s heart stirred.

No "scent"? That guy?

"Naruto?"

He understood instantly.

This Kurama was from right before the system forcibly extracted and transferred it.

In other words, its consciousness was still stuck in the moment it had just been sealed.

It didn’t know him. Didn’t recognize this world.

As for power—well, that depended on who wielded it.

Realizing this, Ryota’s lips curled into a cold smile.

"If this were before, I might’ve needed some talk-no-jutsu... but now?"

Whether it was his Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan or the various cheats in his body—

Any one of them was enough to deal with this freshly dragged-in Nine-Tails.

Back then, even Uchiha Madara had easily controlled Kurama with just the Mangekyō Sharingan. Compared to that, Ryota now was in a whole other league.

More complete. More powerful.

No need for chit-chat.

The next instant—

His eyes sharpened!

—Whirr!

That familiar black pattern spun rapidly within his pupils!

The Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan activated instantly.

Kurama looked confused, wondering what this punk was up to.

Then, it looked up—

And locked eyes with Ryota.

Instantly—

Crack—!!

The entire mental space froze as if forcibly locked by a divine law!

Kurama’s vertical pupils contracted violently.

Then, under Ryota’s gaze, they cracked—

And transformed into the exact same Mangekyō pattern as Ryota’s!

Those blood-red spirals slowly turned, like a mirror reflecting its master’s will.

Kurama trembled.

It lowered its head.

In that instant, it felt its will stripped away, suppressed, and rewritten.

This wasn’t mind control. This was domination.

Not genjutsu submission, but instinctive acknowledgment—

That the man standing before it was on a higher tier.

The arrogant, defiant expression vanished.

No more pride. No more the bone-deep contempt of a Tailed Beast.

What replaced it—was rare, absolute submission.

"..."

Ryota’s eyes dimmed slightly, a faint smile curling on his lips.

"That’s more like it."

He withdrew his intent.

The mental space shattered like glass.

Ryota opened his eyes—back in his familiar room.

"Let’s try it."

With those words, the 10% Nine-Tails Chakra stirred.

A golden, glowing chakra quickly wrapped around his right arm.

Ryota looked at his hand, feeling the energy pulse through his muscles and nerves.

He murmured,

"...Definitely a different sensation. I wonder what it’ll feel like layered over my Susanoo."

"As for letting the Nine-Tails show up in the DanMachi world..."

"Well, let’s save that for when we run into the Black Dragon—give that guy a taste of a Tailed Beast Bomb!"

Another cheat—acquired.

As Ryota sank back into bed, the mechanical voice rang out again—this time, two at once:

[Ding—Chakra Fruit fusion progress +9%]

[Current Progress: 10%]

[Ding—Abilities Unlocked: Rinnegan Perception, Universal Pull]

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