Earth's SSS Pornstar to SSS Combat God in Another World-Chapter 9: The System as a Road to Power
Electricity cracked over Joji’s body. He shivered hard, teeth clacking.
He was going to die. He was certain of it.
The dark clouds retreated, diving into every pore of his body.
As the world returned to clarity, Joji looked at his skin. Not a single burn. Not a single wound.
His bald head even had a fresh shave.
Joji jolted and swung a fist at his own shadow. The punch whizzed fast, and he pushed himself into a boxing routine.
After a good ten minutes of intense shadow boxing, he felt nothing. Not a slick of sweat, not even shortness of breath.
He felt like he had bottomless energy, a far cry from when he battled the hundreds of knights.
He looked in the mirror. There was nothing noticeable, but he felt even more handsome.
"All that freaky work for this? Yeah, I’m locked in."
For Joji, it was not a task. Daisy was a woman like a blank canvas. It was Joji’s choice how to paint her.
But he was not naive enough to believe that the Risqué Sir was only this.
Joji remembered her mother-in-law, then the freaky scenes he made.
How he came in as a bored son and things would heat up. A usual scenario in adult films.
"Damn. I got ahead of myself. I better be careful of the risqué. Ha-ha."
Then a glow showed itself across his retina.
{Your flesh is strengthened, and the changes are done. Do you wish to examine the particulars?}
Joji nodded, and the system did not delay. Details sprawled across his vision.
{The Storm Bringer Constitution}
{Behold a storm that devours the world. Life is its mouthful, devastation its breath, the arcane its marrow, and curses its shadow.}
{Yet to keep such a terror wakeful, one must eat as though one’s life depended upon each meal.}
Joji felt the weight of the words. They were ominous, evil in a quiet way.
Still, he knew one fact about this world of supernatural abilities.
Power ruled. With that thought, he made a vow to get stronger. Strong enough to protect his new life.
Strong enough to protect those around him.
He tapped the system window again and opened the next reward tab.
This time there was no ominous darkness, and no punishing surge of electricity.
{Sir Engine unseals an expansion package... Wait for a few breaths...}
Joji waited. The interface held steady, then shifted.
Between the two mission boards, something new appeared where there had been only empty space before.
{The Honorable Sir} {Status Window} {The Risqué Sir}
Joji felt the System had slipped further into the shape of a game. He tapped the screen, and a new panel unfurled.
{Status Window}
{Invoke it as you please. Status. Ledger. Status Window. System. Or mint your own term, and it shall respond.}
Another line followed.
{Brief: A single unit answers to the measure of one sound, healthy man in this world.}
{Addition: Some portion of your past-life station has crossed into this life as well, fortifying thy strength the further.}
{Name: Joji of Sins Crossroad}
{Constitution: Embryonic Storm Bringer}
{Age: 21}
{First Job: Knight}
{Aura: 13.1}
{Mana: 2.2}
{Brawn: 5.4}
{Quickness: 5.1}
{Wisdom: 19.2}
{15 Merits Borne Forward from Your Former Life.}
{Stamina: 16.1}
{10 Merits Borne Forward from Your Former Life.}
{Charisma: 17.9}
{12 Merits Borne Forward from Your Former Life.}
{Fortune: 27.5}
{25 Merits Borne Forward from Your Former Life.}
{Progress of Training and Arts}
{Fundamental Level of Swordsmanship}
{Measure of Proficiency: 65.4%}
{Intermediate Level of Swordsmanship}
{Measure of Proficiency: 12.2%}
{Titles and Achievements}
{Everyman}
{Can do, learn, and master pretty much any kind of job.}
{A Passive Skill Borne Forward from Your Former Life.}
He stared at it, backed out of the status window, opened it again. When the same lines greeted him, unchanged, he let out a sharp laugh.
"Yo... yo, wait, I got that too?" Joji said, for real, surprised.
It came out raw and jovial, half relief and half disbelief. When Joji’s laughter ran out, he drew in a breath and let his face settle.
He shaped the question carefully in his mind, serious now.
"Sir Engine, I got a couple questions about this constitution."
"What does that mean I can train in any art, and master as many as I can handle?"
{In theory, you may gain more than one kind of power. Sir Engine may record the craft and lend clarity to your understanding.}
{Skill mastery on the other hand must still be won by your own training.}
In the world of Primeria. At rank one, the knight path started with Guard, then Squire, with Knight itself sitting at rank three.
After that, if one followed the most orthodox road, the next steps were Elite Knight, then Great Knight, then Master Knight, then Grandmaster Knight.
Finally, at rank eight, came the Lord of Knights.
Myths spoke of levels higher than that, but those were stories for later. These ranks were what mattered to Joji right now.
"Aight. Fair. Fair. Still pretty smooth, if you ask me," Joji said.
Then he remembered the arts the original Joji had never bothered to learn, out of pride.
Joji wanted to test the system’s new features, so he went to Head Knight Gregorius.
When Joji reached the drill yard, the head knight was there, sword cutting the air in steady, practiced arcs.
Gregorius glanced over, then looked Joji up and down.
"You’ve the look of a man remade. Was it enlightenment you found back?"
Joji from Earth was not a prideful man. If he had been, he would have kept a simple nine to five instead of becoming an adult actor.
If he could get something for free, he would gladly take the knee.
With that, he leaned on the head knight’s chivalrous heart and dropped to one knee, his mind spinning to Shakespearean roles.
"I, Joji, have made a fool of myself, casting aside the grace you once showed me."
"I ask for your guidance in the Everhart Tempest Arts. Forgive my lapse in judgment, I beg you. Grant me one more chance."
The other knights, still honing swordsmanship and combat craft, noticed at once.
Some frowned. Most averted their gaze. Yet they all saw it. Joji had changed.
In this age of knights and magic, people would not bow, not even in death.
They had seen him suffer alone, training in his own corner without saying a word.
To the knights, it read as one thing. He wanted to protect the Duchy of Everhart, as they did.
Gregorius reached down, trying to pull Joji up.
It was embarrassing for a man to kneel like this. Joji did not budge.
"Nah. Nah, what’s a knee to me? I’ll get on it and grovel right now!" Joji roared, and the other knights felt the words bite deep. "Sir Gregorius, I wanna hear it first."
The head knight studied him, seeing the same stubborn core beneath whatever new edge Joji carried.
Gregorius let out a breath, then gave him the short answer.
"Very well, I’ll teach you. Up on your feet. I’m no god to bow and scrape before."
Gregorius led Joji to the armory. Inside, weapons lined the walls in ordered ranks. Swords. Bows. Arrows. Crossbows.
At the far end, the family crest stood mounted like a relic, a tornado wrapped around a sword, wind blades circling it.
Each blade grew larger and darker as it neared the hilt. A faint barrier clung to it, a pressure you could feel on the skin more than see.
Head Knight Gregorius stepped up and plunged his sword into one of the crest’s slots.
He circulated his art. With a sharp click, three of the nine tornado marks pushed outward as if the crest itself exhaled.
He took three volumes and placed them into Joji’s hands.
The First Three Levels of the Everhart Tempest Arts.
They looked like books, but when Joji opened the first one, the pages were transparent, layered, forming a three-dimensional map that hovered with depth.
The first art displayed an anatomy of a man, and green illustrations shone within the limbs, arms and legs lit like channels.
Lightness of the Wind Art. It made a man swing and move like wind.
The second volume showed wind circulating through the whole body. Joji flipped further and saw the figure gather that energy and drive it into a sword, the flow tight and clean.
Emerald Blade Wind Art. A piercing attack that shatters an enemy’s defenses.
The third volume returned to the whole body again, but this time the energy pushed outward in all directions, shaping itself into a warding shell.
Protectorate Wind Barrier Arts. A barrier that pushes the enemy away and defends oneself from projectiles.
Gregorius watched the glimmer in Joji’s eyes. Still, doubt held a corner of his heart, so he asked the cost aloud.
"Once you learn these arts, your aura may no longer tread other paths."
"The elemental power will set in you for good, unless you’ve some peerless panacea to draw it out again."
"Are you certain this is what you choose?"
Joji nodded, his eyes fascinated by the workings of martial arts.
Seeing how casual he was, Gregorius felt something settle. Joji had not only changed, he had matured.
That quarrel had carved something into him, an enlightenment about what truly mattered.
A couple of hours passed. Joji was so immersed he did not even notice the System chime until the sound finally reached him and he glanced up.
He clicked open the status window and saw it plainly. His reading had made real progress.
{Progress of Training and Arts.}
{Everhart Tempest Arts Series: 3/10}
{Lightness of the Wind Art} {Measure of Proficiency: 2.4%}
{Emerald Blade Wind Art} {Measure of Proficiency: 1.9%} 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
{Protectorate Barrier Wind Arts} {Measure of Proficiency: 1.7%}
With the statuses laid out, plans started churning in Joji’s mind. Head Knight Gregorius was a kind man.
Joji found himself thinking of asking for more help, then swearing in the same breath that he would repay it later.
So Joji played the part. Then he began to display the arts, because he knew he had to amaze the man first.
He started with the Lightness of the Wind Art, moving through the armory with quick, careful steps, organizing the disordered weapons and swords as if the air itself helped his hands.
Then he switched to Emerald Blade Wind Art, gathered the wind into a clean line, and flicked it upward at a cobweb clinging above. The threads snapped and vanished.
Finally he stepped close to Head Knight Gregorius and raised Protecting Winds Barrier Arts, shaping it only above them like a small roof, making sure no dust could fall onto the head knight’s shoulders.
Head Knight Gregorius was amazed. He nodded again and again with approval, not good at giving praise.
Joji approached him and returned the three books to the head knight. As Gregorius started locking each art away, Joji suddenly asked.
"Head Knight Gregorius, I know it’s kinda shameless asking, but can I get your notes on these arts?"
Instead of being angry, a smile crept up the head knight’s face, and he laughed heartily. Like he had waited for this very moment for a long time.
"You’re really Hedrick’s son," the head knight murmured, nostalgia softening his face.
He walked a few paces and pulled a drape from under a cloth. Chests were hidden there.
With a key, the head knight opened one, then passed two notes to him.
One of them looked well used. The other was dusty, as if it had been neglected for years.
"One set is mine, the other belonged to your father," he said.
"He was the one who schooled me to keep notes with every enlightenment. Take them. It’s the least repayment I can make to him."
