Dreamland: Freedom (Terror Infinity, Ultimate Evolution)

With the Fruit sold and Sukuna's fingers acquired, Eden was now free to use his Dream Points any way he wanted, and his plans had changed.

He did not buy any spells, or any equipment, and instead holed himself the Specialized Training Hall, with time passing half as fast, essentially doubling his time. In there, he trained almost solely his Cursed Energy, occasionally working on his Alchemy.

This was not because Eden had abandoned magic upon gaining Curse Energy, far from it. Instead, it was because he had chosen what he would use his VIP Pass on.

He always knew he would use it to send himself to a magic world, and quickly enough, he had narrowed it down to two universes: The Elder Scrolls, and Dungeons and Dragons.

Both had plenty of magical items, and all kinds of spells to learn. They were all quite easy to access too.

More specifically, Eden thought of Skyrim and Baldur's Gate 3, the two being the entries of the universes he knew the best. Even without looking it up, he remembered the locations of all the best items in both games, making them prime locations.

In the end though, he had to choose one, and that choice went to Baldur's Gate 3, and that was because of the lore.

Both were video-games, and had to implicate certain mechanics to make them applicable. And when sending them to a world, Dreamland did not take these into account, and went for the lore instead.

This was something Eden had seen in Pirates of the Caribbean. He had access to a fixed version of the internet in his room that did not allow him to communicate with anyone, but allowed him to look at all manners of media, and he had discovered that the whole Rogue Pirates thing was actually part of the lore, and Dreamland had not just pulled it out of its ass.

Henry Morgan, too, was an important figure in the lore, having created the Pirate Code and becoming the Shadow Lord.

To go back to the destinations, Eden felt that Skyrim had the potential to be much more dangerous. In there, about every somewhat skilled mage and dragons had the ability to bend reality, and the Dragonborn ends up fighting a literal god.

In comparison, Dungeons and Dragons was considerably tamer, the game-play being very close to the lore, and although there were some absurd figures and gods in that world as well, they were far more removed.

Another factor was the magic system, as Dungeons and Dragon's was much closer to the one Eden naturally had, while Skyrim's seemed quite different.

And then, Eden got Sukuna's Fingers, and that changed things.

Although Eden had more fingers than he could use at the moment, in the end he only had seven of them, while Sukuna at full power was 20 fingers, and that peak of power was somewhere in Tier III.

From what Eden knew of Cursed Energy, the amount one would have was predetermined at birth, so consuming Sukuna's fingers might be the only way for Eden to increase his Sorcery.

So, the wiser thing to do might be to hold on the VIP Pass for now, and wait until he was strong enough to use it to go to the Jujutsu Kaisen world, and collect more fingers.

In the end, Eden had decided to still go to Baldur's Gate 3, and for a very simple reason: if he had gotten one VIP Pass already, then he just had to get another.

So, Eden would improve on his magic once he got to his next mission world, and for now, focused on his Cursed Energy.

His Points disappeared at a rapid pace, but after just over ten days, turned into 20 by the training hall, Eden gained a rudimentary grasp over his Cursed Energy, and gotten some interesting information.

Cursed Energy was born from negative emotions, and regenerated very differently from MP or HP.

The key to controlling Cursed Energy was to control his emotions. The energy itself could be controlled in its raw form, but that was something only people with experience could do, or people with cheats like Satoru Gojo's Six Eyes and Eden's Soul Overlord.

To recover Cursed Energy, one had to stimulate their negative emotions, and 'extract' the Cursed Energy from them. That was why beginners often only managed to control it during moments of great anger or fear.

The next step from there was Cursed Energy Output, which was the amount of Cursed Energy one could control at a time. This directly affected the power behind anything done with Cursed Energy, as the more Cursed Energy was put into an action, the more power there would be behind said action.

Looking at things through this perspective, one's max Cursed Energy did not only determine how long they could last in a fight, but also the upper ceiling of their techniques.

Finally, there was the applications for Cursed Energy. The most basic use for Cursed Energy was to apply it to one's body, strengthening it. Any attack imbued with Cursed Energy would become stronger, and logically, the more Cursed Energy there was imbued in that attack, the more power there would be behind this. This was the previously mentioned Cursed Energy Output.

Physical reinforcement was not the most efficient way to use Cursed Energy, however. It was one's Cursed Technique instead.

A Cursed Technique is an innate technique that applies Cursed Energy in a special way, to give a particular effect. For example, Gojo Satoru's technique was Limitless, which allowed him to conjure an infinite distance between himself and attacks by fueling it with Cursed Energy.

Having inherited Sukuna's Shrine, Eden could use his technique to cut. It might sound underwhelming, but anyone who had watched or read Jujutsu Kaisen would beg to differ.

But just like the other aspects of Cursed Energy, one had to train their Cursed Technique to truly master it and gain access to all of its abilities.

So, these were all the aspects Eden had trained on, each one paramount to becoming a powerful sorcerer. There was also the Binding Vow, which had been turned into a support skill by the system. It did not need any training though.

[Binding Vow (Support): Form a contract with one self or someone else who also possesses Cursed Energy. If the vow is with oneself, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the power.]

But then, he had discovered something else. Something new.

Eden had some leftover Evil Spirits from his time in Pirates of the Caribbean, they had been attached to him all this while because he had no reason to get rid of them since they did not have any effect on him.

A regular person might be driven insane by the constant presence of the Evil Spirits, but Eden had to thank his Talent for the immunity.

Back to Cursed Energy, Eden had learned that these Evil Spirits actually had an effect on his Cursed Energy, and passively recovered it.

He only had a couple of them on him, so the regeneration rate was extremely slow, and Eden would have never felt it without his Talent, but it was there.

This was already an amazing discovery, but that was not the only one he had made. When he had discovered that the Evil Spirits could help with his Cursed Energy regeneration, he had thought of trying the same thing he had done with mana, and tried to 'feed' one of his Evil Spirits to his Cursed Energy.

It had worked better than expected. Much better. Not only had a greater amount of his Cursed Energy regenerated, but it had slightly grown.

His Cursed Energy, which was supposed to be impossible to grow in size, had slightly grown. It was a fraction of a unit of Cursed Energy, but it did grow. This cemented his decision to go to Baldur's Gate 3, since he no longer required only Sukuna's Fingers to grow his Sorcery attribute.

This led Eden to making his second Binding Vow. He had made a total of two.

The first was one seemingly sworn by every character in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe.

[Revealing One's Hand: Cursed Energy Output increased against an enemy if the technique's information is revealed to them.]

It was a simple one, but a very useful one, although the boost would be very minor to Eden. That was because his cursed technique was very simple, it allowed him to create an invisible blade, which was a very simple concept, and thus the increase in power was minor.

Then, there was the second.

[Soul Steal: Permanently lose the ability to use Evil Possession and to imbue Evil Spirits in external objects. All killing blows performed by Ozymandias that are infused with Cursed Energy result in the creation of an Evil Spirit that will attach to Ozymandias.]

The funny thing about Binding Vows made with oneself was that they could not be consciously cheated.

Technically, attaching Evil Spirits in mass to oneself represented a massive danger, because a normal person would be driven mad very quickly. This should make it a great sacrifice. However, because Eden knew that they did not represent any danger to him, it did not count as a sacrifice.

On the other hand, Evil Possession, which was but a mere 1st Circle Spell, that is the lowest rank of all spells, was seen as something with limitless potential by Eden. Maybe he was wrong about it, but that did not matter, so long as he believed in it.

That was why something as powerful as Soul Steal could be created. He had created it with evolving his Cursed Energy in mind, but the ability to steal and corrupt a soul was extremely powerful.

For example, were he back in Pirates of the Caribbean, all forms of immortality would have been negated by it. Having faced Davy Jones' crew, he discovered that it was not that they could not be killed, but rather that once they were reduced to 0 HP, they would simply regenerate it.

If Eden were to turn them into Evil Spirits though, that immortality would be rendered null. Of course, Eden already had access to that ability back in there, and had not used it because it would have been a waste of MP, but still. It was far more convenient to kill something with Cursed Energy.

So, this was what Eden had spent his time on. He had managed to make quite some progress, starting with Physical reinforcement. In the manga, Yuji Itadori, the protagonist, had a 'special technique' called Divergent Fist that would consist in hitting a target physically, and then have their Cursed Energy hit a moment later, resulting in a double impact.

That was hardly a special technique in reality though, and was instead a proof of Itadori's lacking control over his Cursed Energy. Eden faced the same problem at first, but after 20 days of training, he had managed to bring his Cursed Energy well enough under control to synchronize his physical attack and Cursed Energy hit.

He could still perform the technique, but it was only useful in the Jujutsu Kaisen world because sorcerers and curses have to consciously reinforce their defences with Cursed Energy, and would stop applying it to the area once the strike had been delivered to save on Cursed Energy. That would be when the second attack would strike them undefended.

Eden was not going to face enemies with Cursed Energy though, or any kind of 'active' defence, but rather ones that relied on armor, so it was better to rely on a synchronized strike.

Of course, the two did not really hit at the exact same instant, as that would be a 'Black Flash', which was something that could only happen through luck. Whenever Cursed Energy hit the target within a millionth of a second of the physical impact, space would be distorted, resulting in the power of the strike being increased by 2.5.

Even with the slowed down time perception from his Talent in the face of danger, Eden only got an advantage at best, but that was far from being enough to guarantee a Black Flash.

Still, it provided a valuable buff to Eden's power. Not only did it make all of his attacks stronger, but it also improved his defence. Moreover, since he was the one in control of the Cursed Energy, he could decide where to apply it, whether it be diffused all over his body, or in precise points.

Coupling that with his danger sense and modified time perception, Eden's defence was the aspect of him that had received the greatest increase, and by far. If he used to be squishy before, he no longer feared anyone of his level in close combat.

This also showed to Eden how important gaining a Power System was, and how much of a jump in abilities it represented. Despite Eden's physical attributes only being at the very bottom of Tier I, hovering around the low twenties, Eden felt like he could fight Henry Morgan or Davy Jones in close combat with the help of Cursed Energy.

Obviously, Power Systems were meant to be acquired by much higher leveled Players. This also meant that it would be very unlikely for Eden to face Players with a Power System for a while.

Of course, this huge jump in power also had to do with Eden's gifts, and where he had gotten his Power System from.

Finally, Eden had also started developing his Shrine, his Innate Technique. He had developed and trained the two basic techniques.

[Dismantle (3rd Rank): Launch an invisible slash with a range of 10 meters to deal 100 magical slashing damage. Output: 350 CE.]

[Cleave (3rd Rank): Inspect the target and use the exact amount of Cursed Energy required to cut them apart. Must be in contact with the target, deals a max of 175 magical slashing damage. Output: 350 CE.]

Cursed Techniques worked differently from spells, and did not really have a cost. When he used a spell, Eden would 'burn' some of his mana to make the spell. Cursed Energy would not be consumed for a technique however.

The way it worked was that Eden activated his technique with Cursed Energy, and the intensity of the effect would depend on how much Cursed Energy was used to activate it. That Cursed Energy would not disappear however, and only a small amount of it would be burned.

Of course, Eden could not simply use it infinitely, as his Cursed Technique would wear out with continuous use, and start burning more Cursed Energy if used too many times.

The values for his two skills were calculated with his current maximum Cursed Energy Output, but he could choose to use less if he wanted to. The smaller the output, the lower the strain on his Cursed Technique.

To put it in numbers, Eden's first use of Dismantle in a fight would only cost him something like 1 Cursed Energy unit, while his 100th use in a row would cost him a thousand. These were not the actual numbers, but that was to show how Cursed Techniques worked.

Overall, it was a very powerful Power System, although Eden's greatest advantage was Sukuna's innate Perk, Immense Cursed Energy III. He had far more Cursed Energy than anyone his level should reasonably have, which made everything easier.

Not only could he last longer in a fight, but it even helped with his Cursed Energy output. As mentioned before, the total Cursed Energy Eden had was more of a potential than anything, and the closer he was to that max potential, the harder it was to train his Cursed Energy Output.

If Eden did not have that Perk and only had a total of 480 Cursed Energy, then 350 would represent 72% of his total Cursed Energy. Thanks to his Perk though, it was only 21%, making it much easier. In other words, if not for his Perk, Eden's current maximum output should be somewhere around 100.

Lastly, Eden had also gotten to try a few things with his alchemy, buying a few ingredients, and had managed to make his first potion, which was a Minor Health Potion.