On a beautiful beach

  The blazing sun shone on the fine sand making it look like pure golden dust

  The gentle sound of waves lapping against the shore echoed, calming the listeners

  Glimpsing at the pure, clean, and transparent water fish could be seen swimming unhurriedly close to the coast

  But they weren't alone in this water as a black-haired woman could be seen swimming and playing around enjoying her time

  Meanwhile, on the beach, Lorien could be seen laying on top of a comfy-looking beach chair under the shadow of a big parasol

  To his left, there was another empty beach chair which is Saigai's who is currently swimming

  And between those two chairs, there is a table with some beverages, fruits, and modern snacks on top of it

  Today is the last day of their stay in this dream so they decided to enjoy themselves to the fullest

  This dream is in its essence an illusive world close to reality, so all that happens here feels no different from the real world

  There is no such feeling as it being 'fake' or 'not feeling real enough'

  Quite the opposite, because it's a dream the experience is much more perfect than it could ever be in reality as Lorien could fine-tune whatever he wants here

  This new use of the dream world was discovered by Lorien during the past 6 Months as after a long time of training both he and Saigai needed to find a way to relax

  So he tried to transform this dream into different sceneries and locations to 'travel to'

  And it went surprisingly great, as even if he didn't know the details of the location he wants to create well, he could simply spend some Source Energy to perfect it

  So, since then a new activity was added to the schedule, and that is going on dates once in a while

  In this 6 months period, they almost tried nearly everything Lorien could think of

  From going to the Eiffel tower, and the pyramids, going to different restaurants and eating different foods to even sky diving and bungee jumping...

  Moreover, like on the beach with the 'fishes'; the dream could easily create other creatures such as 'humans'

  And by spending some energy they could even communicate and act like normal humans

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  So even this last factor wasnt an issue and didn't cause the experience to be affected whatsoever

  Of course, all of this was just secondary and it was done mainly to relax and improve their relationship

  And so, they didn't get distracted and forget the main reason they were here in the first place, and that was training

  For Lorien, those 6 months went almost according to plan

  Every day he would fight those NPCs in order to improve his fighting experience and get to know how to better use his abilities better

  And then after each time he beats an NPC, he would increase the energy spent which will also proportionally increase the level of the NPC's fighting experience

  In the beginning, Lorien started with 10% of his energy and then started increasing it by 5/10/15%

  That is until he reached the 80% mark, and that is when he decided to just 'full send it' to 100%

  At first, it wasnt that difficult, it usually took him around 1week give or take to beat each NPC

  It mostly depended on how much he increased the NPC's fighting experience compared to the previous one

  But the more he got to the back, the harder and harder it became, especially the last one where Lorien spent his full energy to make the NPC

  This final 'BOSS' took him a full month to beat which was absurd considering how long it usually took him to beat the other NPCs

  Actually, if it was to just tie against that last NPC Lorien achieved it in 2 weeks

  But he just couldn't beat it, and that was because of the shameless 'technique' that the NPC had developed

  It wasnt a 'new' ability or technique per se, it's just another use of Extreme control and Exertion

  This 'technique' that the NPC used is very straightforward, and that is to condense everything it had (power, stamina...etc) and then employ it in a short time

  The shorter this period is the more powerful the power the NPC would burst with

  This is very similar to 'Ittou Shura' and 'Ittou Rasetsu' in 'Chivalry of a Failed Knight' but with much more control over the duration and power exertion

  But that wasnt the reason as to why Lorien called it shameless as after a while he was also able to do it by copying the NPC

  The actual reason he called it so was because the BOT went even further

  In the end, it even burned its 'life span' alongside everything else it got (stamina, strength...etc) just for one single and final strike

  And because the NPC is equal to Lorien in everything besides the [Dream/Reality] power

  This condensed blow is the actual true limit that Lorien could burst with without using his aforementioned ability

  And so because of this no matter what Lorien did he wasnt able to beat this NPC

  Even when he also used this technique it just ended with a tie and both people perishing together

  Speaking of this 'technique', thankfully Lorien is currently practicing inside a Dream and he had already set it so that after every battle whatever happens will become just an illusion

  Otherwise burning lifespan wouldn't have been something Lorien would be willing to do as it would cost a lot of energy to restore, which would be a great pain

  So Lorien decided that he won't use this 'final strike' in reality until he gets immortality at least which will negate its defects and raise its power to another level

  This state of constant tieing continued for a while, and after many failures Lorien determined that if he won't be able to beat this NPC without strategizing or finding another use of his powers which the NPC didn't know

  So he went on a short journey to find this 'solution'

  He even used his [Dream/Reality] power to cheat a bit to help him deduce and analyze, this helped him gain a lot of time in the end

  Of course, all he is doing is just trying to find a 'solution', a way to beat the NPC

  He isn't actually deducing a new 'power' or 'technique' otherwise even if he was able to create one, the NPC will also get a copy of it, effectively making his situation even worse

  And thankfully after more than a week, he was finally successful, he finally found a solution

  It isn't any 'technique' or even a new use of 'ability', its just a simple strategy

  And it is...