Throwing himself into the dungeon, again, and again, and again...

And again.

It wasn't healthy, but it helped him come to terms with, think, to plan what he needed to do.

He grinded to level 15 within the Dungeon, unlocking a new dungeon once he had hit level 10.

[Zombie Dungeon.]
Zombies! Oh no!

He had gotten the rest of the dungeon crawler gear, and a ton of extra in case he ever needed more, keeping at least three pairs for himself and putting the rest in his 'To Sell' tab. He had unlocked the shop once he had hit 10, but instead of looking at it right away, he continued to grind away in the dungeon.

Training his skills, and abilities, pushed his now seemingly tireless body to its unknown limits as he pushed harder and faster.

He wasn't sure of the 'general' level of people, but he knew that as he moved, he was moving as fast as an Academy student, now with a lot more proficiency as it allowed him to move his body how he wanted, how he needed it to move. He amassed a sizable fortune of gold since he didn't need to bother picking up loot or opening a chest even. As long as he 'cleared' a dungeon he would gain all loot he came across.

He continued to add points to his wisdom, increasing his intuition, increasing his ability to 'detect'. He learned that as long as he 'noticed' a hidden chest, he would auto-loot it once the dungeon was completed.

The only ones he couldn't do that with were chests that had traps involved.

This allowed him to train in trap detection, and trap disarming.

Despite how long he had spent grinding, he did take time occasionally to still show up in the village, buying groceries or a few necessities, slowly showing that despite him still keeping to himself, he was slowly starting to come out more, starting to show progress in his physique. That he was getting better even without his parents around.

Controlling how much information the enemy had of you was one of the greatest powers a Ninja could use.

He had been taking some time while he was out to use observe anything he could. Leveling the skill up as well as learning the general 'Power' of levels when compared to others.

1-10 Civilian
10-25 Genin
25-45 Chunin
45-65 Jonin
65-80 Elite Jonin

The only reason he knew what an Elite Jonin was, was due to the chance he got to see Kakashi as the mourning stone when he was visiting his own parents. A nod was all they shared, but it was actually pretty cool to meet a character that you 'knew' on that sort of level.

He also learned that levels weren't a 'true' basis of strength. Even if their level was set, that didn't mean the strength they showed wouldn't be pushed further.

Much like Ichiro, even if he was only 15, he could show a strength many times above his level. With his skills, mastery of them, and just how hard he had trained his body in doing so.

The longer he spent at home grinding away, the more he would come out into the village, and it did help with that anger, the pain.

It also made it easier to get more used to the life he lived now, he lived like he was a game character, but there were still real people around him, all people who worked hard through their life, to make a better life for themselves or their kids future.

Their own problems, helped him accept his new life, and it made it feel more natural to be in a new body, with new memories and sensations, and new tastes in certain things as well.

He also noticed just how... Deep, the 'Root' has spread in the village, it wasn't 1 in every 10 people, but it was often enough that it was no wonder Danzo had such strong information about the village.

Ichiro didn't have the strength to be able to do anything just yet, since he was aiming for the 'Master' route, it would take even longer to get stronger, but for everything he had at his disposal, he would be able to use.

Shaking his head he began to head home. He hadn't gotten a new skill or anything for a week, so it was time to push himself into the new level 10 dungeon, a Zombie dungeon. Time to test just how far he had come in his strength, it also meant he could actually use his sword and not need to abuse his sheaths.

Once he was home, he put his groceries away, made himself a light lunch, and then made sure his house was locked away he stood in his bedroom.

'Dungeon Create, Zombie'

Suddenly he was sucked away, the world-altering around him before he quickly covered his nose. It fucking STUNK, he noticed that it was still his house, but more worn down as if many, many more years had passed and it had not been nice.

Equipping the full set of gear, or at least making it visible he made sure his sword was properly secured before he drew it.

Stepping out of his bedroom he noticed there was no zombies within his house, and when he looked in the street he found the source of the stench.

Zombies were walking around, always staying away from his house, as if they couldn't get near it. This must be a safe room for the dungeon, there wasn't one in the first Skeleton dungeon, he assumed simply because it was small enough it could be done in a 'blitz' since that is exactly what he had originally done to level his skills and masteries.

Some of the more 'Notable' skills that he had upgraded through mastery were

[Swift Death LVL 15/50]
The Assassination Sword Style taught by Ichiro's Mother

[Crashing Waves LVL 15/50]
The Combat Sword Style taught by Ichiro's Father

[Hardened Fist LVL 15/30]
Able to harden the user's fist, increasing blunt force.

[Basic Chakra Enhancement LVL 10/30]
Able to imbue the user's body with chakra, allowing the increase of base stats.

[Trap Detection LVL 10/15]
The ability to sense mechanical traps

[Trap Disarm LVL 10/15]
Ability to disarm mechanical traps successfully.

The trap skills had stopped before 15 due to the 'quality' of traps that were in the first dungeon, whereas the others capped at the level the dungeon allowed to grind up to.

He could 'grind' the skills outside the dungeon, but it took many times longer to level them up without actually putting them to use in a combat situation.

Basic Chakra Enhancement had actually been the hardest skill to grind, even grinding it in and out of the dungeon it was still only 10, and he assumed that was because he was doing something fundamentally wrong. He just couldn't understand exactly what it was.

One thing he noticed is that no matter how much mastery he had over something, it never showed what benefits he would have over it, nor would it show him what would happen if he maxed a level. It simply gave him a value to express how much mastery he had over it.

It meant that no matter how hard he tried to level something up if he didn't actually show progress in learning it himself, he would never level it up.

He also noticed that if he 'knew' things about a skill, as he did with his parent's Kenjutsu, the level up would be fast, and it instead would wait until he 'used' the skill in a situation it could be leveled up.

Because the first time he had properly used the sword style in the Skeleton dungeon, it had went from level 1, to level 15 in an instant.

So did that mean that no matter his 'mastery' until he used it in a dungeon, it wouldn't update?

He decided to test that now.

Leveling his sword and getting into the first stance of Swift Death, he took a slow breath as he began to enhance his body with chakra, it now took a lot less chakra to enhance his body, but he still wasn't at a level he could automatically adjust the level of what he needed, he still needed to have a conscious hold on it.

Suddenly he crossed his yard and into the street, a cut across the throat might not work properly so he adjusted his stance and power slightly, cleaving the head off the zombie.

Using his enhanced physique to pull back as he entered his yard once more.

He noticed that the sound of the body hitting the floor had brought a few zombies over. Looks like he now had to worry about the sound he made as well, which also meant he could begin training his stealth properly.

He had tried with the skeletons, but the moment they see you, no matter how 'much' you try to conceal yourself, they lock onto you and attack.

He had a theory that whatever they used to 'see' him wasn't exactly eyesight, and possibly had something to do with his chakra.

Suppressing one's chakra was dangerous, it was like slowly choking yourself, so without proper instructions, he didn't even try to learn it.

Once he examined the zombie's reactions, how they didn't seem to care about the commotion after a bit and simply moved away did he turn to look at his mastery.

[Swift Death LVL 30/50]

So he was right, it seemed his system heavily leaned onto the Dungeon when it came to some skills, his system was a 1.02 version, right? Maybe there were ways to eventually update it somehow, to make it a better system.

Not as if what it was now was weak, his level of growth already outclassed when he was learning under his parents, even if he hadn't started to use all of the basic ninja skills, he knew that once he did he would quickly build in mastery.

Even if now all it is was a number to show his 'mastery' over something, and offered no bonuses, it still offered a strong motivation to see its completion.

With that new information, it was time to learn more about the Zombie dungeon, and test what he could get away with.

---

Sorry for the absence, just dealing with a lot.

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