Chapter 14: Breathing is fun

MC POV:

After returning home from school, my parents called me to the living room while in the middle of discussing something.

"What it is?" I asked while looking at my parents.

It's probably something serious.

"We send some of your drawings to one of our friends, and you got an invitation to a drawing contest." my dad replied with a proud smile after glancing at my mom.

"That's all? Then why did you argue over it?" I inquired, visibly surprised.

What was there to discuss? There is no reason to decline.

I am also not surprised they showed my drawings to their friends. After all, parents love to show off their children. Not to mention that my drawings should be beyond any existing human's ability to replicate. The first time they saw them they were so stunned I had to call out to them several times before they reacted, before checking if it was real and calling me a genius.

"Well, the contest takes place in Britain, so we weren't sure if you are ready for something like that. Also, because of our work, we can't go with you, and you would have to go with our friend." my dad explained.

Now I get why they were so concerned about that. I may be an adult mentally, but for them, I am just a kid.

"When will the contest start?" I asked.

"Hmmm, there still should be around two months left before it starts." my mom replied this time, after pondering for a moment.

"Ok. I will gladly take part in that contest." I declared.

After talking a little more with my parents about school, and other matters, I returned to my room. There, after sprawling my body on the bed, I started thinking.

One of the things I have understood since coming to this world is that every record has at least one person that can be called the protagonist.

This record is a combination of more than one story. Considering one of them is an ecchi series, while the other also has a lot of cute girls, it's fair to assume that there are more such stories involved.

That led me to the conclusion that this record was based on the dreams of some pervert, and it's likely that he self-inserted himself as one of the original main characters or created an original and will appear only once the 'plot' starts.

I had no involvement in the creation of this record, nor do I remember reading a story about it. As such, I have no idea who the main character of this world may be. I can only wait and prepare for his inevitable appearance.

Even if I knew such a story, there is no certainty that it's the same record. I can't even be sure of events from original stories like To Love-ru or Amagi Brilliant Park, not to mention fanfiction.

[Flashback]

"So, there is an infinite number of different records?" I asked.

"Yes," Selen confirmed. "Most are born from dreams, desires, and thoughts of sentient beings," she added.

"If I got it right, It's not wrong to say that sentient beings of each record give birth to even more records in an endless cycle. Is that correct?" I asked.

"No," Selen instantly denied. "From the perspective of beings such as Matrucksa or Observers all records that could exist already do. That includes their endless iterations," she explained.

"Is it because they exist outside the records? And what do you mean by 'endless iterations'?" I inquired.

"Yes," Selen confirmed. "As for the second question. There is an endless amount of records that are 99.(9)% the same, and the only difference may be the placement of one atom or something even smaller," she added.

"So, I could keep traveling through Type-Moon records and never run out of them if I wanted to?" I asked.

"Yes, but while there are many stories describing people traveling from one world to another, in the end, it's something that happens inside one record," she explained.

"I see. What happened to me is travel between different records," I stated. "How rare is it? What are the differences?" I asked.

"It's not that rare. When there is no afterlife in their record of origin, souls leave them and get reincarnated in the central network. Most lose their memories, while the lucky ones get chosen by Concepts and receive cheats," Selen explained.

"I see," I said and nodded, confirming I understood everything so far.

"Once they get inside the record, unless they possess a cheat that turns them into a singularity, or the record has only one timeline, there will appear 'copies' of them," Selen continued. "However, if someone has an item like The Orb of Desires, not only there won't be any other iteration of themselves. Their fate will no longer be under the control of the Concepts, excluding the one, they received the gift from, and they will be able to travel into further records," she added.

"All in all, it has mostly positive effects, at least for the owner," I said.

"Yes. As for the negative effects. It's possible to cause the death of someone you never planned to kill, or had no enmity with," Selen said. "All abilities that rely on traveling back in time won't work because of you being a singularity," she added.

"Are there any ways around it?" I asked.

"Yes. You can reverse the entropy with enough power, authority, or both," she replied.

[End of flashback]

"Seriously... who is the real main character of this record?" I muttered while slowly closing my eyes and entering The Orb of Desires.

***

Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale…

I kept repeating these two things in my mind while going through various stances inside the training room, each breath filling me with energy while also increasing my focus and awareness of my body.

It was a technique I developed after studying various breathing styles that helped in training, keeping focus, and enhancing the body.

The day I chose the sword as my weapon, I already had in mind the anime I planned to draw inspiration from. Among these, the major ones were One Piece, with their ability to coat swords in haki, the manifestation of willpower, Bleach with their movement techniques and zanpakutos, Type-Moon series, with Miyamoto Mushashi in particular, and the most relevant to my current actions, Demon Slayer.

However, at that time, I was still too weak and inexperienced to start training the various breathing styles, like Water Breathing, Fire Breathing, Lightning Breathing, or the most powerful of them all, Sun Breathing. Thus I started with breathing techniques not coming from that world. They were a lot easier to learn and prepared me for more advanced techniques, finalizing in me learning Lightning Breathing as my first breathing style.

At the same time, I kept studying and analyzing how they all worked to create a style that would suit me perfectly. After all, that's how most of them came to be. They were tailor-made for the first users.

(A/N: Reminder. Level refers to the level/tier of existence. For example, level 1 is mortal while level 4 is a god or divine spirit.)

However, I didn't focus solely on the breathing techniques from the Demon Slayer I know. While they look powerful, the sad reality is that these techniques can't go past Lvl: 2 without improving them.

The reason is that they come from a record that's only level 2, or at least the version I am familiar with is of that level.

Fortunately, there are countless iterations of that world with various levels, which also means there are more advanced Breathing Styles.

My only complaint is that the higher the level, the more it starts resembling a cultivation novel, and going through these versions was painful at times, but it also helped me realize one more thing.

A major step on the path of swordsmanship is mastering and becoming one with the sword. It allows you to use even a simple stick like a mighty blade and cut through anything.

I took a bit different approach by mastering my own body first. After all, If I manage to do it, I will only need to accept the blade as part of me to master it completely.

Breathing techniques help with that, as even the breathing styles from Demon Slayer allow you to control the individual blood vessels and muscles.

So, after months of studying, practicing, analyzing, and experimenting, I managed to create my breathing style [Breath of Heaven and Hell].

Usually, a lot is said about being able to perceive, control, or destroy everything between heaven and earth, so I decided to go one step further, straight to hell!!! I sound chunni as fuck, but I don't mind it!!!

Based on my estimations, this ability in its current form should be able to exceed level 3 and reach level 4 if fully mastered. I couldn't even start wrapping my head around how techniques of higher levels than that worked, so if I want to make any improvements, it will have to wait.

The only reason I succeeded was that Einlion pointed me at the right books, and the [Heavenly Breath] technique I used as a template was pretty straightforward despite its high level.

"[Breath of Heaven and Hell], First Style: Hell of Flames!!!" I shouted as I swung my sword powerfully.

The force of the swing caused my body to spin, adding one overlapping slash after another to my target, a giant 216 cubic meters boulder made out of highly resistant material, as crimson flames erupted from my blade.

"That packed more than I expected…" I commented, seeing the aftermath of my attack.

The boulder got split in half while most of it melted, becoming bright red in the process.

"And to think I don't even need a sword to use these breathing techniques," I said finishing my training for the day.