Chapter 44: Limit and Control
A Couple of moments later Lorien finally reached his destination
In front of him stood a huge tree that was giving off dreamy vibes, Its golden cherry petals shone in the light as its branches waved lightly in the wind
Which caused some of the petals to fall on the ground joining the previously fallen ones, this created an even more stunning scene
But Lorien didn't care about this right now, as first of all he was used to watching it
And more importantly, he could feel the huge amount of energy hidden inside of it which attracted most of his attention
Walking up to the tree he put his hand on its bark, he then moved all of the energy inside of it to his body
He didn't start absorbing it or anything like that, he just moved it from one location to another
Feeling this energy he could tell that it was at least 20 times more than the one he received 12 days ago when the tree-covered just 1/5th of the town
After perceiving this he didn't waste any more time as he sat under the tree and started absorbing it
With that, the dream energy quickly started dividing into Three portions
Two Portions for strengthening his body and soul each taking a portion and the Third was transformed into 'Source Energy' increasing his energy reserves
Even though Lorien couldn't tell exactly how much stronger he was getting, he could make a basic judgment based on his perception range which was getting bigger by the second
At first, it creased rapidly, from 82m to 83m ... 85m ... 87m ... 89m but then as it reached 90m it became much slower as it increased in decimals
That was because the energy required to increase even a meter following that level was much higher than before
This slow increase later for a while before it finally reached 95m where it abruptly came to a stop
This was because the collected dream energy was finally exhausted
But even then Lorien was happy with the results, as this growth equaled what he'd normally achieve in 2months of hard work before getting the Tree of Dreams
But thinking about the amount of energy he got, this increase was predictable
He could feel that his physical strength increased greatly, earlier it was just a bit stronger than Akaza, but now he could easily beat him up
The strength of his soul should have been also increased but he sadly couldn't really tell
And finally, it was the thing that was clearest, the amount of Source Energy inside of his Body nearly doubled which allows him to use his ability much more freely
Sensing the amount of energy inside of his body Lorien couldn't help but think
'I should be able to perfect the breathing technique in one go, and if it isn't possible I'll make it in Two'
But with this improvement, Lorien also felt one more thing, and that was the limit to how much he could absorb at once
He still hadn't reached it, but this time different from the vague feeling he had last time, he clearly felt it
It was probably because the amount of energy he absorbed this time was much greater than last time
But Lorien wasnt bothered much by this as he was mentally prepared after the feeling he got in the previous time
So following this improvement he didn't linger any longer and instantly shifted his attention to the breathing techniques he got
Previously he wanted to first get all the breathing techniques that the Demon Slayer Corps had
But after getting both the water and sun breathing techniques he changed his mind as he discovered that the water breathing technique was actually much less complex that the sun breathing technique
It looked like a downgraded version of it in the control part with changes in the energy exertion part
And from what he saw in the original timeline Lorien could tell that all the other ones were similar with just the power exertion part being different as each technique copied a different element
So after discovering this he lost interest in collecting them
Even though doing so will make the energy required to customize his own technique bigger
The difference in the amount wasnt worth the hassle
So he decided to just throw energy at it as the results wouldn't change anyway
All those techniques were there just to reduce the energy spent and it wouldn't affect the final results he'd get from using his ability to create one for himself
So with this decision, Lorien kept sitting under the tree as he executed his ability
[Dream/Reality]: Perfect and Customise Breathing Technique
With his ability acting the breathing technique in his mind started getting modified
All breathing techniques can be divided into Two portions a 'Control' portion and a 'Power Exertion' Portion
The first thing to be changed was the 'control' part, the breathing patterns were getting modified at incredible speeds
Errors were quickly found and eliminated and then it was improved
And then finally, it was adapted and customized for Lorien's body as each person had a different physique and there exists some subtle differences
This lasted for a while before it stopped as it was finally perfected
Before the improvements, even though using the breathing technique one could exert nearly the full capability of his body there still exists some distance full control, and now this distance was fully disappeared
But his ability didn't stop there as after perfecting the 'Control' part it moved to the 'Exertion' Part
This portion was different from the previous one as one would usually copy an element or a concept here and then mimic its attributes
But after some thought, Lorien didn't want this, because whatever element he chose there would be some bias
For example, if one were to mimic 'Earth/Stone' the defense and power would increase but the speed would decrease
And if one were to mimic 'Lightning' the 'Speed' and 'Attack power' will increase but then the 'Defense' would decrease
Lorien could have chosen the easy way and then chose to Mimic the 'Dream' attribute as it was the most compatible with him, but even it had some bias
So for this 'Power Exertion' part, Lorien didn't feel the need to use the Dream attribute as it would overlap with his ability and wouldn't give him that big of an improvement
What he wanted to 'Mimic' was a concept much purer and would fit better in this situation
And that concept is....