Five days later, exactly 2 weeks following Saigai's awakening

In the backyard, a cherry flower tree stood there in the middle, it was unlike any other tree of its kind

It was much bigger, Its trunk thick and strong, and the crown also extended in all directions and sides creating a huge patch of shadow underneath it

But the most obvious difference was the color of the petals, they were gold shining as they reflected the sunlight

The tree itself gave off a very dreamy vibe, it was as if it was wandering between the line of existence and dreams, just standing next to it made one feel surreal and relaxed

But that wasnt all, if one was able to bypass its hidden characteristic and observe its roots they'll notice that they extended in all directions, covering nearly 1/5th of the whole town

This is in fact, the Tree of Dreams

And under it, a young man with silver hair and golden eyes could be seen resting his back on it looking completely relaxed

Feeling the energy accumulated inside the tree behind him Lorien couldn't help but smile cheerfully

Right now the energy the tree could gather in a day was much more than he could previously acquire on his own

In the past couple of days, Lorien didnt absorb any of the energy, rather, he redirected all of it into the tree to accelerate its growth, an investment of sorts

'It should be enough...'

Thinking of this Lorien decided he should restore the allocation quotas to normal, that being 40% of the Dream Energy goes to Lorien, 40% To the World, and the final 20% Goes to the tree itself for growth

'Tsk, With 40% going to the world I'll finally become the protagonist! No more bad luck! But before that...'

Turning his attention Lorien looked at the petite woman that appeared in front of him a couple of moments ago, it seems that Saigai was the one who let her in

"Hi, Shinobu"

Lorien's call awakened Shinobu who was looking at the tree in front of her in a daze, Just standing in front of it made her feel relaxed and at ease

 

Shaking her head lightly as to get rid of the last bit of trance, a small smile appeared on her face as she asked curiously

"Oh! Hello∼ Are the seeds you gave us to plant for this tree?"

Seeing him respond with a nod she then asked expectantly

"Can I take one to plant home?"

Whish Lorien of course agreed to as he threw a seed toward her

Then, Seeing her catch and put the seed aside Lorien finally spoke

"So, what brought you here? is it for the trade?"

Hearing the question she finally became serious

"We checked out the information you gave us before, It included information about upper demons six, Five, Four, and Two and their respective abilities"

As she said Upper demon Two Lorien was able to notice a slight shift in Shinobu's voice, but he still continued listening

"It also included the location and abilities of lower moon Five (Spider Demon)"

Listening to this Lorien nodded and asked

"I already know this, is there something wrong with the information I gave?"

"No, everything is good, we have already sent someone to his location and....verified it"

She didnt speak further about what happened to lower moon Five as to was already obvious, his only fate could be...death

After listening to all of this Lorien was a bit tired so he asked directly getting to the point

"So! Do you guys agree to trade or not?"

Suddenly getting interrupted mid-speech caused Shinobu to choke for a moment before nodding

"Yes, We agree, you could choose whatever breathing technique you want to learn and we'll send a Hashira to teach you, but for some breathing techniques you'll have to go to some remote places yourself where some retired hashiras are living"

Hearing this Lorien smiled happily and nodded quickly in agreement

Getting taught directly by a Hashira wasn't something he expected

When he made the trade he thought they'd just give him some booklets or send some people who have some mastery over it to teach him

The reason Lorien is so happy about it is that when getting taught he could use the opportunity to battle them

Doing so he could quickly make up for his poor battle experience, Effectively making up for another shortcoming of his

Now with the deal done, Lorien took out another small booklet, this one obviously had smaller amounts of data but it was the most important

Throwing it in her Direction he said explaining, evidently in a great mood

"It contains the location of Upper moon six, the ability and history of upper moon one, and all of Muzan's different abilities and how he hides"

Hearing this Shinobu clenched the booklet hard and quickly hid it, trying hard to hold in the excitement

After taking in a couple of deep breaths she then said

"There is actually another deal the Lord wants to propose to you"

Hearing this Lorien's interest was instantly piqued, he didn't know what the man was up to, but if the trade was to benefit him he may agree

"The Lord wanted to come to meet you in person, but truthfully his health isn't great so I am here as an intermediate, you could also choose to come with me to our headquarters to meet him in person"

Seeing that Lorien just kept silent she then continued

"When we made the first transaction you stated that if we can pay adequately you would help us kill demons right?"

Hearing this Lorien nodded slightly as he does indeed remember saying such a thing

"So who do you want me to kill?"

"Muzan"

"Huhh??"

Seeing Lorien's shock Shinobu quickly continued not leaving him any time to refuse

"In exchange, we'll give you..."

---Author---

I apologize for the slow release, I was barely able to take some time to write this chapter

I have exams on the 17th/19th/20th of this month, those are the final exams of the year (The previous ones were projects and tests that constitute around 30% of the note, those exams are the 70%)

Following that its the summer vacation, I'll have 4 months of near rest (2 months are for internship tho)

In those 4 and a half months, the update rate will increase and finally become stable! so stay tuned

I'll try to write a chapter or two before the exams when I have time but don't expect much