Kenshin was so thrilled with his son's progress that nothing could spoil his mood the rest of the day. He wasn't worried that Ichiro couldn't break through to jonin rank and always encouraged him, sharing useful experience from the other sons.
He knew his eldest reaching jonin was just a matter of time and was confident that, with richer experience in advancing to that rank, he could develop a successful strategy and bestow it on the rest.
With the massive workload, Kenshin introduced an unprecedented concept: the "daily schedule." He allotted fixed time for rest and fun, a few hours daily for training, and devoted the rest to work.
Nothing prevented little Karin from spending most of her time with her father. She watched everything he did with interest and marveled at all the technological devices. The steam engine impressed her most, which Kenshin effortlessly integrated into the future heating and water supply system for ordinary people's homes.
Extracting water in the deep forest was one of the biggest problems for common folk, but Kenshin easily conducted geodetic surveys for groundwater and hastily designed a steam-powered drilling rig.
Aketo was beside himself with joy upon seeing this wonder and tasting the miraculous underground water. Kenshin had to practically fend off his thanks and attempts to kneel.
That evening, Kasumi and Natsumi finally gave birth, presenting Kenshin with two splendid infants. The Forty Fifth had an incredible 38 talent points for Kasumi's child. But the Forty Sixth lagged far behind with only 27 talent points.
Kenshin showed no emotion about the talent differences but grew more convinced to find safer pursuits for less combat-talented sons. He believed weak fighters could be geniuses in equally vital areas.
That evening, Noriko couldn't evade Kenshin's advances, and by morning, not a spot on his body lacked bite marks, scratches, or hickeys. Moreover, the night with the aggressive, insatiable predator brought Kenshin another level.
Waking on the morning of the 449th day, Kenshin delightfully stroked Noriko's smooth, power-packed thigh and couldn't hold back a smile. For several minutes, he blissfully caressed his wife's body before focusing on the main task.
After reaching level 24, he unhesitatingly allocated the free skill point to "Shelter Creation," raising it to level 8 and instantly gaining a huge list of expanded capabilities.
Name: Nakayama Kenshin
Age: 22
Level: 24
Class: Patriarch
Available: 0 skill points
Skills:
Harem Master (MAX)
Will of Patriarch (MAX)
Patriarch Mind (MAX)
Patriarch's Aura (MAX)
Talented Offspring [Level 12]
Shelter Creation [Level 8]
Formation Creation [Level 7]
Psi – 3500/3550
???
Gazing at his progress, he sighed heavily, realizing two levels would take considerable time, each harder than the last. But he decided not to get upset and focus on more productive things.
Waking the grumpy Noriko, he practically dragged her into the shower and tenderly washed her magnificent, sculpted body. After health recovery, she seriously took up physical training and developed truly sturdy muscles.
With hours until breakfast, Kenshin dove into formation experiments. Lately, various ideas had arisen that needed testing.
First, he finally increased energy storage capacity. Nothing came from nowhere, and powerful formations required massive energy volumes that couldn't accumulate from the environment quickly. Thus, each high-level formation array needed its own power unit.
Even explosion power from instant energy surges depended on mana in energy nodes. Kenshin finally glimpsed a path to boosting accumulator capacities via energy flow optimization.
A second way was using more capacious reservoirs. Kenshin tested many metals and gems, settling temporarily on tungsten and citrine. But faceted diamond, called "brilliant," had far greater capacity and oddly improved with processing degree.
Kenshin had been steadily buying diamonds for months when finances allowed. By his estimates, new flow optimization plus high-grade brilliant could generate an unprecedented blast, possibly seriously injuring an Elite Jonin.
Thus, entering the gym, he first tasked Ichiro with finding a needy professional jeweler, while planning serious high-profit trading, as buying techniques, explosive seals, and lately diamonds barely covered elite wine and top katana sales.
After an exhausting workout, breakfast and family time followed. Kenshin knew infants needed a father and tried spending time with all sons. But older sons grew jealous of Karin and felt a bit slighted.
He couldn't help the growing number of children making such situations inevitable, so he compensated with generous gifts, creating bicycles for all underage sons, then riding with them himself.
The sons were eager for combat training, especially Noriko's hot-tempered one. The Forty Second already looked twelve and burned for drills and battles. But Karin and Makoto were thrilled by the invention and mastered biking in minutes.
To Kenshin's surprise, Aiya loved biking too, so he personally taught her, showering affection that made sons snort in disgust and girls envy admiringly.