Chapter 2:Trials and Revelations

Feeling the sun's rays penetrating through the roofs, Shin awoke. Due to the beating from last night, his sight was still limited. Getting off the bed, he could feel his body still trembling from the aches and sores, but Shin ignored it and made his way to the restroom.

Along the way, he could sense the presence of many other Zenin members who were awake due to their disgusted looks, insults, and laughter as Shin passed them.

As Shin looked at himself, he took off his stretched shirt. Dark purple and blue spots were all over his body and face, eyes blackened and swollen, and some dried blood. Not wanting to see his own state any longer, Shin quickly cleaned himself up.

Shin returned to his room and waited until a large percentage of the clan members had left for their duty before he could venture into the kitchen. But as he focused on sound and vibration, he noticed a small group coming towards his room. "Really?! Another beating." Scared, Shin didn't know whether he should hide or try to fight back.

Before he could decide, the door slid open with force, and in walked a man with a pompadour and sideburns, Nobuski Zenin, the captain of the clan's Kukuru unit.

With no introduction, Nobuski grabbed ahold of Shin's hair with anger and a face of disgust, "You think you can skip today's training just because you were roughly handled? You fucking retard! Letting someone like you join per the head's order was insufferable, but to think you can just skip out on training is even more insulting."

Shin tried to speak but was interrupted as Nobuski dragged him by the hair forcefully, practically dragging him, towards the Kukuru training room. For the next six hours, Shin was yelled at, bludgeoned, and roughly handled under the guise of "training" before the session ended and was then thrown out of the training room.

Getting up to walk back to his room, Shin noticed Nobuski standing at the entrance while crossing his arms, "What's the point of keeping someone like you around and training you? You have nothing to show." He turned and walked back inside.

Shin, with nothing to say, ignored the remark and returned to his room to rest. "I don't think I can handle this. Should I just head straight to Jujutsu High and see if they're willing to accept me? It's not guaranteed, but it is better than living another day here in this hell hole." Shin, feeling the stress and pain building up inside, decided to just endure the pain until his current goals and conditions were met as he turned himself in for the day.

Waking up, Shin noticed the pain had lessened dramatically. "Weird, can this body heal that fast?" Shin was perplexed by his body's fast recovery despite the constant beatings he had endured as evident from his clear sight and the lack of bruises.

The door slid and his morning breakfast was served, a female again came and left just as fast. "I better eat and head over to the Kukuru training room."

Once inside, Shin noticed no one else inside but him and decided to test his body's limits. Shin proceeded to do 1x5 squats, 1x2 pull-ups, 1x6 dumbbells for both arms, and 1x3 bench press. After each set, Shin rested for 10 minutes and the weights were max 5 pounds.

"I'll aim for 1x10 squats, 1x10 pull-ups, 1x10 dumbbells, and 1x10 bench press, with 10-pound weights." Shin, disappointed by the result, sat down sweating and breathing hoarsely.

Not long after, the whole Kukuru unit entered. Seeing Shin inside, they were surprised before Nobuski entered.

"Now this is something surprising, the dog has some spirit and it looks like he recovered. You better be useful in my unit or else I'll cripple you, fucking dog." The training started, unfortunately, Shin was not given rest from his morning workout but was instead forced to participate with everyone else.

Luckily, Shin only experienced a mild beating today and endured enough to remain standing till the end of the session despite his body aching and screaming for rest. "I should try and convince the captain to help me with the breakfast problem, he did say he wanted me to be useful."

Shin approached Nobuski. "Excuse me, I can't become more useful to the clan due to my given breakfast, is it possible to receive enough to become an asset to the clan?" Shin bowed with the belief that by doing so his chances of getting what he requested would be more probable.

Nobuski, hearing the request, faced Shin with a stern look before grabbing ahold of Shin's hair and forcing it downward to the floor. "If you want more food, then you need to show me you're worth investing in. Meet me at the Curse Pit tomorrow morning after breakfast." Shin was then let go before stumbling to the side. "Yes sir". Shin answered as he grew to hate the captain more. 

The morning rose, and Shin, almost fully healed, headed straight to the pit after breakfast. Entering inside, he saw Nobuski and a small group of the Kukuru unit.

Nobuski grinned at the sight of Shin, "Good. You didn't run unlike all those other times, you've changed. Maybe beating you all these years was good for you."

Shin, walking closer, noticed talismans that were not there previously hunged around the pit.

"You want more food, right? Time to prove to me your worth, get down there and for the next 1 hour survive. Don't worry, I won't kill you off, you still have some worth, surprisingly, any curses Grade 3 and above will be prevented due to the talisman my unit placed, leaving you with only Grade 4's curses." Nobuski's grin turned into a wide smile after telling Shin.

Shin, hearing the condition, was shaking instinctively, and his voice cracking. "C ... Can I at the very least use a weapon, I .. I ... I don't think it's fair to send me down there with only hands and feet."

Hearing Shin's request, Nobuski appeared annoyed before turning and pointing to a nearby rack of weapons. "You're free to use whatever is on that rack. The Kukuru unit doesn't need them anymore anyway. "

Shin walked over to the rack and inspected the weapons. There were swords, staffs, knives, and spears. Handling each one to see which weapon was the most comfortable, Shin decided to choose the wooden staff.

"Alright, now then, get in. I don't want to hear any excuses, instead, show me what you're worth." Shin walked downstairs into the pit and stood in the middle of the room.

Not too long after, he could smell and feel the air changing as he sensed low-level curses coming out of the darkened rooms.

The first curse had the appearance of a one-legged umbrella, with a medium-sized eye focusing solely on Shin as it bounced towards him while repeating itself, "I hope it duh, does, doesn't rain today." Shin, still shaking, took his stance before swinging to the curse's right side with all his might. The curse went down with one hit.

Suddenly, three more curses charged at Shin from his back, right, and left side. Noticing their approach, Shin successfully spun his staff outward and cleaved all three curses with one swing as the adrenaline kicked in due to being outnumbered.

[Level Up]

A panel appeared before Shin, causing him to be taken aback. As he was too focused on the surprise, he felt a medium-sized presence charging in his direction; unfortunately, Shin was unable to dodge before he was tackled a few feet away.

Quickly regaining his footing, Shin managed to feel and dodge the next attack that was above him. Looking behind him, he saw a curse with antlers and a body similar to a deer, but it had only two feet. "It's nice to walk outside." The curse spoke while getting ready to charge at Shin.

Seeing this, Shin also noticed that the curse in front of him from earlier was also in a charging stance. Anticipating their takeoff, Shin stood motionless but in the perfect spot where he was in the middle between the two curses.

The moment they charged, Shin waited before jumping out of the way, causing them to collide with one another. A loud, meaty thud was heard as both curses stumbled; once they gained composure, they realized a wooden staff was in motion toward their skulls. They were both exorcised.

For the next 57 minutes, Shin cleaved and fended off every curse that approached him, thinking he was an easy meal. Every once in a while, Shin would notice the same panel telling him he had leveled up. Too focused on surviving, Shin pushed the messages aside.

After 1 hour, Shin was heavily exhausted as his lungs desperately sought air and his muscles tore at every motion; he collapsed onto the ground, still holding onto the staff. When a curse tried rushing at Shin while he was down, Nobuski stepped in and sliced the curse into two before turning his sight onto Shin. Clapping loudly with a big smile stretching from one side to another, "Good, very good, so you do have some use after all. And here I thought you were worth nothing from the moment you were born till now. I'll make sure you're well-fed from now on."

Shin, upon hearing that his fight was over, closed his eyes and rested. Upon waking up, he was looking up at the pit's room ceiling as he remained on the cold hard ground. Walking back to his room Shin sees the morning meal.

Looking at it, Shin couldn't help but smile as he noticed a significant increase in the portion size. "I did it, I actually accomplished something. Now then, what was that message I just saw yesterday? How do I check it again? Was it like those other Isekais where I just imagine the word 'open'?"

Suddenly, just as Shin thought of the word, a panel appeared. Seeing this, Shin became even happier as he looked through the information.

Name: Shin Zenin

Lvl: 5

HP: 53 / 70

CE: N/A

Title: N/A

Stats:

Str (5) + 10

Dex (4) + 10

End (7) + 10

SPD (4) + 10

VIS (5) + 10

AUD (5) + 10

OLF (5) + 10

Luk (0) + 5

"I understand strength, dexterity, endurance, and luck, but what's VIS, AUD, and OLF? Is it observation, hearing, and smell? It would make sense." Shin a bit confused moved his attention to the luck stat. "What does luck do in this world? Do curses even drop items or is it something similar to crits like Black Flash?" As Shin thought about the stat, he remembered the Kukuru training and proceeded to finish breakfast before heading out.

Entering the training room, Shin noticed no one was there except Nobuski, who was busy training with a sword in the corner of the room. "So there's no training on Saturday and Sunday? Then I should learn how to make money"

Shin walked up behind Nobuski and waited until he finished training; when Nobuski noticed Shin, he frowned, "What the hell do you want, little man? There's no training on weekends, piss off." Happy to hear his assumptions were right, "How can I earn some money?"

Nobuski, still annoyed, responded with a tone of annoyance, "Did your head get beaten that hard? Just go to the Request room, there are tons of exorcism requests for curses, now stop bothering me and fuck off."

Shin remembered a room of that sort from the previous owner's memories and made his way there, along the way he noticed many Zenin clan members entering and exiting out of the room, their hands filling with pamphlets. Walking inside, Shin could feel all the eyes looking down on him as he walked up to the desk with a massive board behind it full of forms and letters.

Upon reaching the counter, Shin asked for requests regarding grade 4 curses. The lady sitting behind the counter scoffed and appeared disgusted by Shin's mere presence before she pointed toward the trash on the right side of the massive board.

Upon further inspection, Shin noticed they were all request forms regarding assistance to exorcise lower-grade curses. "So if the price and level aren't high enough, they just throw it out? Assholes." Shin decided to take the whole trash bag of requests on his back and return back to his room.

Returning back, Shin could hear laughter and insulting remarks regarding him, but he paid them no mind. Sitting in his room, Shin pulled out the first request.

The form was requesting help exorcise a danger near a river on the outskirts of Tokyo. The reward upon completion was about 4,400 yen (30$).

"Luckily, Shin remembers locations in this world as the previous Shin traveled in and out of the Zenin household, fulfilling the clan's small tasks and orders as their lapdog for many years since he was 5." With the destination in mind, Shin sneaked into the pit room for the wooden staff before heading out to the location.