章 3: Patience

It was like some mysterious power was influencing the speed of time in the dream world, as the moment Lucien left it, even through not much time passed inside, he woke up completely refreshed and relaxed.

The Crimson Moon had already set and a new day had begun. The moment Lucien opened his eyes, a group of maids stormed in, along with Alice. To following couple of days were really stifling for Lucien as he couldn't get a moment alone, to try absorbing something. Even through he was fed multiple times, the extra that he got was almost negligible. Whenever there was a surplus of material in his body, the feeling was like a black hole appearing in his body and taking it all, keeping everything balanced. Lucien felt like that black hole could absorb the whole world, as long as he managed to put it in his body, so as long as he had the chance to eat 100kg of meat, he didn't have to worry about digestion or other problems, just the time it would take to actually eat it.

Lucien also found out a bit about the world from paintings and maps on the wall, when his excited mother was taking him around the palace. From what he saw the world he was in, was a continent that looked like a circle surrounded by an endless ocean from all sides. The continent itself was also not endlessly big, even a normal commoner would be able to cross it by carriage, of course it would take him a couple of years, as it was about 20 000 kilometers in diameter from any side, as the continent was almost a perfect circle.

Geographically, the continent was fascinating, it was split into 3 areas, by a mountain range that was shaped like a Y. Surprisingly Lucien was also able to read the characters and symbols on the map so he found that there are 3 empires.

On the left of the mountain range, there was the Barbarian Empire, he didn't really understand much more about the empire from the map, but with his recollections on novels from Earth, he imagined savage men that looked like walking giants, training their bodies to the utmost pinnacle.

On the top of the Y range of mountains, was the Holy Empire, it was not hard to imagine that, it probably was the home of some fanatics, believing in some god and trying to make everyone that didn't, a heretic, thus delivering judgement on the wrongful soul, in the holy name of the real one.

And finally on the right side of the mountain ranges, it was the Scarlet Empire. It was where

everybody who didn't want to be a believer, everyone that was not of Barbarian descent gathered. It was not hard to spot a Barbarian deserted or two as well. Lucien made an accurate guess, that the economy of the empire was probably the strongest out of the three empires.

Territory wise, the Holy Empire was smallest, barely even making the standards of an empire in this world, followed by the Scarlet Empire, which was bigger by quite a lot, but still paling in comparison to the Barbarians, as their empire was almost twice as big as the Holy Empire.

Lucien couldn't deduce more on the current situation from just a map, so he had to wait, till he can get a book or find another method to gather information.

As the days passed, Lucien was patient, he didn't have many chances to absorb, as he was always supervised, and a baby eating his toys would be strange, but he knew the sooner or later he will have his freedom.

As he turned 3 months, he calculated the existence points he should have by now, and decided to check out the dream world, which he named - the Crimson World.

As he fell asleep, he was transported back to that space. It had not changed a bit, still a rock foothold floating and a Crimson full moon hanging in the sky.

'I have to find a way to get stronger, as 200 points is too far for now.'

"I want to exchange."

Crimson light gathered and showed 11 as a number.

-State your desire-

"Show me methods to get stronger."

-Taking into account existence points-

-Baby Breathing Method: 10 existence points-

-This method caps at 0.50 point in all stats-

-An all rounded method for setting foundations-

-Works for anything with a cognition-

-Soul Torture Method: 10 existence points-

-Able to increase Soul Power endlessly-

-Extreme pain caused by method-

-The higher the soul power the slower it increases-

Lucien looked though the short list, and considered for a second.

'As my soul is already strong enough for now, my absorption won't start unless everything is at adult level.'

"I want the Baby Breathing Method."

Right when he finished, the crimson light that was displaying the number 11, started separating, ending in one bigger strand of light that shot towards Lucien, and one smaller that displayed the number 1.

Lucien calmly waited for the crimson light to hit is forehead, and as the method transfer began, the expected pain was not there.

'Probably it's not more than what my soul can handle, so it's painless.'

The transfer lasted an instant this time, and Lucien began reviewing the method, it was nothing complicated, just a breathing routine that even a baby can follow.

'I wonder if it's the system creating the methods, or they already exist somewhere.'

'Anyway I have lots of time to practice this, as it doesn't look suspicious and no poses are needed.'

'The maids won't know a thing.'

As he didn't really enter here after the first time, as without existence points, it's just a weird dream.

This time through Lucien was not rushed. He knew it would take time to gather existence points, so might as well explore it a bit, find out future possibilities, and maybe ways to gather existence points faster.