Demiplane was essentially an infinite inventory, since Eden could create as many demiplanes, or pocket dimensions, as he wanted.
Moreover, the cost of 185 MP only came when he created new pocket dimensions. To access ones he had already created, all he had to do was open it through the 'key' he had created. This was not exactly part of the original spell, but for every demiplane he created, he could create a special magical signature and set of commands that would specifically open it.
This truly made Demiplane a great inventory spell. The only issue with it was that it did not have an absolute safety since it could be 'hacked' into, but the other side would have to be a prodigious mage to be able to do so.
But that was just the basic version of Demiplane. In reality, Eden had come up with something far greater, something that had not been registered by the system.
Focusing, Eden held out a finger, and slid it downward in a straight manner, muttering, "I cast Demiplane."
A small portion of his mana exited his body, not to form a spell circle, but spreading onto space itself as his Cursed Energy surged, and Cleave was activated.
Space itself was carved out by his Innate Technique as a new pocket dimension was created, with a door leading to it manifesting out of thin air.
Something Eden had been working on for a while was the merging of mana and Cursed Energy, or at least getting to use them together. The two were very different energy sources, and for most operations, they could not work together.
One of the first things Eden had tried actually had been to cast a spell through Cursed Energy, but that was definitely impossible. But now, he had managed to find a way.
The normal way to cast Demiplane would have him carve out space with only his mana, which required a lot of energy, hence the steep cost of mana. But by casting Cleave on space itself, Eden lowered the MP cost to a mere tenth of what I should have been, and achieved even better results.
Stepping through the door, Eden arrived in a large cubic room, its sides 50 meters wide. A normal Demiplane, even when mastered, only had sides about 20 meters wide. In other words, the normal demiplane had a space of 8000 cubic meters.
Eden's version, when cast with Cursed Energy, had a space of 125000 cubic meters. It could be shaped in any way he wanted too.
It was a huge breakthrough for Eden, but considering he had been down there for what must have been decades, it was only to be expected.
Unfortunately, the pocket dimension created inherited the characteristics of the space it was created in.
One of Eden's hopes had been that once in his pocket dimensions, the restrictions on teleportation would no longer have applied to him, and he could have escaped, but as he tried to cast Gate to leave, he was only brought back to the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss.
The time stream inside the pocket dimension was also similar to that of the Forgotten Layer, so he could not just wait out the end of his main mission for a few months either.
What was the saddest though was the situation with the Sword of Zariel.
Abraxax had revealed to him where he had put the sword, and why no one had been able to find it. It was because he had placed it inside a demiplane of his own making. As it turned out, Abraxax was quite the accomplished wizard, though that amounted to nothing inside the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss since the Weave did not exist down there.
Now that he had mastered the Demiplane spell, Eden thought he would have been able to open the demiplane to which he had been given the key, but he was unable to because it had been carved out of the Prime Material Plane.
Even though he had the key to it, opening a demiplane made from another space from the Abyss' amounted to creating a portal to another dimension, which was just the same as Gate, so it was blocked as well.
It seemed he would only be able to get that sword if he managed to leave this place.
Though undoubtedly disappointing, Demiplane was still a very convenient spell. Ignoring everything else, it offered him a completely safe resting place, since no one could enter his pocket dimension in this place.
This meant he no longer had to sleep in Corpse Castles, nor did his Simulacrum have to study in them.
Pocket dimensions created through Demiplane could be crafted in whatever shape the creator wanted, and although it used the original environment the space was carved out from as a canvas, meaning Eden did not get any wood or dirt or any other crafting materials, he could still shape the room however he wanted.
His first time sleeping in the Demiplane he designated as a sleeping place was definitely strange, he had grown used of the Corpse Castles.
Leaving his personal comfort aside, Demiplane opened a whole new can of worms for Eden as this was the first spell with which he had managed to co-use mana and Cursed Energy. This not only meant that it was not impossible, but also that he had achieved the first step towards a technique that had been eluding him ever since he got Cursed Energy. A technique he managed to learn by his next fight with Gorellik.
When he found the Gnoll's fallen deity, Eden did not directly enter his domain, but instead stopped next to it, and observed it. Really observed it.
True Sight allowed him to see the invisible, but that was not just a counter to invisibility. It was a first glance into the deeper secrets of the universe.
Not that Eden found these secrets in Gorellik's Domain of the Hyena, but he did get a better insight into the inner working of the domain. Confirmed some theories. Crossed out doubts. Perfected the technique.
When Eden did enter the divine realm, Gorellik was immediately alarmed, and did not even run. He threw himself at nearby demons, not even bothering to fight with Eden anymore.
Scoffing, Eden cast Dimension Door on himself, appearing above Gorellik. Sensing him appear, Gorellik snarled at him, spit flying, but Eden looked down on him with no particular emotions.
Well, he was feeling excited, but that was because of what he was about to do, not Gorellik himself.
His hands gently joined one another, his mana and Cursed Energy spreading out to form a pitch black dome around them as Eden muttered, "Domain Expansion: O'Yama."
The sphere closed around them, cutting them off from the outside world. Inside the domain, a pool of blood that seemed to be stretching out into infinity laid at their feet, skulls littering the edges of the domain as Gorellik and the Gnolls unfortunate enough to be caught in were suddenly assaulted by countless Cleaves.
The Gnolls were instantly turned into minced meat, but Gorellik resisted the effects, his domain having not disappeared and protecting him from the slashing attacks.
Gorellik's domain worked very differently from Eden's in the sense that it was a passive domain that mostly buffed and debuffed entities within. The only reason it was even resisting Eden's attacks was because the two domains were competing for dominion over the surrounding space.
Though his domain's sure hit attacks did not hit Gorellik, Eden's domain was not useless. Not only did it trap Gorellik, but it also boosted Eden in every way.
With a flap of his wings, Eden appeared in front of Gorellik and smashed his fist into Gorellik's face. As he did, he felt like he had just experienced a Black Flash, his connection to his Cursed Energy amplified greatly by the domain.
His mana was the same as well. Gorellik tried to cleave his axe into Eden, but a silent Shield completely blocked him.
However, as he hit Gorellik, Eden felt entities attempting to break into his domain from the outside. He tried his best to finish him off quickly, but Gorellik's HP and defence were too high, allowing him to survive until Eden's domain was shattered from the outside.
The moment it was, Gorellik instantly teleported to the edge of his domain, and killed himself through a demon, once more escaping from Eden.
But even though Gorellik had escaped from him, Eden was not disappointed. He was happy, if anything. After all, he had reached the first stage of Domain Expansion, the highest technique in Jujutsu Sorcery, the ultimate expression of Cursed Energy.
Although, to be fair, it was not completely made of Cursed Energy.
Demiplane had been such a massive milestone because it was the first step towards learning Domain Expansion for Eden. After all, what Domain Expansion did, whether it be through pure Cursed Energy or not, was to claim temporary ownership over a certain space by enclosing it into a barrier, and imprinting it with their Innate Technique.
Demiplane was learning to do half of that job. From there, all Eden had to do was learn how to imprint his technique on the separated space.
As it was now, Eden's Domain Expansion mixed both Cursed Energy and Mana, amplifying all of his attributes, spells and skills inside his domain. It was also sturdier as a result, though clearly not invincible.
As for its primary function, it was the same as Sukuna's Malevolent Shrine, and activated Cleave and Dismantle on everything inside the domain relentlessly. Eden had chosen to give it a different name though as it was not exactly like Malevolent Shrine.
After all, Sukuna was able to manifest his domain on an opened space, while Eden was for the moment only able to do it in an enclosed one.
Not that it was a problem. He had wanted to get a closed Domain Expansion to trap his opponents. Although he would also like to develop an opened Domain Expansion, for now, Eden needed to strengthen his current domain.
The strength of a Domain Expansion depended on two parameters: the space 'stolen', and the depth of the Innate Technique's connection with it.
In its current state, Eden's domain was relatively stable, though not enough to last for long, but the real problem was the degree of imprinting of his Innate Technique on the space. The Cleaves and Dismantles used within the domain were only a fraction of the power of those Eden could use normally.
Had they reached maximum power, Eden would have won the domain clash, and not only shredded Gorellik's domain, but the Gnoll's fallen deity too.
So, overall, things were fine. It was not like Eden had particularly expected to kill Gorellik with that fight either. It had been more of a test run, and he had learned a lot from it. For example, it looked like Gorellik was incapable of teleporting out of Eden's domain.
Had he truly wanted to kill Gorellik at all costs, Eden would have exhausted him first, forcing him to use his teleport and waited for Gorellik to be at his limit before using it.
Overall, the only drawback to using Domain Expansion was the huge strain it had on his Cursed Energy. He had expected it, and maybe it had been made worse because this was his first time, but as he was, he could hardly use Cleave and Dismantle, not to mention another Domain Expansion, so he retreated to a demiplane to rest.
Once he was back to fresh, Eden did not look for Gorellik, but headed straight for the Puncture instead. Entering, he did not immediately rip out his domain, but examined the inside of the Puncture, as well as the chains, to try to determine if there would be any dangers to creating a domain inside.
After all, the Puncture was not a real space, it was a stretched out portal in a sense, a hole between universes, so 'commandeering' a piece of space in there might have unwanted consequences. Eden did not want to just be torn apart by space because he was rash.
Apparently, his concerns were founded as nothing from what he saw told him it would be safe. It was not impossible, but his current technique was too raw and unrefined as it was, so he would start by refining his technique.
Which is exactly what he did.
The following period ended up being the longest period of time between two of his and Gorellik's fights. Again, it was impossible to track time in this dimension, unless he was mad enough to start counting every second, but it still felt distinctly longer than any longer.
And for a good reason, considering their 70th fight was their last one. It was anticlimactic too.
Gorellik's tactic of killing himself through other demons saved him twice, but it was a bad strategy born out of desperation. Even without his Domain Expansion, Eden would have eventually managed to land the last blow and kill Gorellik.
And his Domain Expansion made everything even easier. He started by using all of his buffing spells, countered Gorellik's teleport with a Forcecage, demolished him in physical combat, killed any demons that even got near them, and once Gorellik's HP dropped low enough, Eden finished things off with his Domain Expansion.
His loot was not even that good, with the axe being a mere Super Rare weapon with trash attributes than even the Lightning Sword, which harmed its user, got beat. The only silver lining was the completed side mission that popped up, which rewarded him with an Epic Boon of his choice.
There were 12 he could choose from: Combat Prowess, Dimensional Travel, Energy Resistance, Fate, Fortitude, Irresistible Offense, Recovery, Archmage, Speed, Spell Recall, Night Spirit and Truesight.
[Boon of Combat Prowess: Make an attack unavoidable. Cooldown: 6 seconds.]
[Boon of Dimensional Travel: Teleport anywhere within 10 meters. Cooldown: 6 seconds.]
[Boon of Energy Resistance: Gain Resistance of the Tier above yours for two of the following damage types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant and Thunder.]
[Boon of Fate: Improves the user's luck, affecting causality to tilt events in their favor.]
[Boon of Fortitude: Increase HP by 500, and all sources of HP recovery are 25% more effective.]
[Boon of Irresistible Offense: Physical damage ignores Resistance of the Tier above yours and deals 20% more damage.]
[Boon of Recovery: When brought to 0 HP, resist death and regain half of your HP. Cooldown: 24 hours. Increase passive HP regeneration by five times.]
[Boon of the Archmage: Increase MP by 500, and passive MP regeneration increased by five times.]
[Boon of Speed: Become naturally harder to catch, and increases movement speed by 50%.]
[Boon of Spell Recall: Spells of 3rd Circle and under have 33% chance of being cast for free.]
[Boon of the Night Spirit: Merge with shadows to become invisible at will, and gain Resistance of your Tier for all damage sources except Psychic and Radiant while using this form of invisibility. Invisibility cast off upon attacking.]
[Boon of Truesight: Gain passive Truesight.]
The twelve boons were clearly not equal to one another, although some would definitely suit some archetypes more than the others. Still, some would be good to anyone, while others could be useful to certain people, and that was not even sure.
Combat Prowess was probably one of the overall best that could benefit anyone, but with the mastery of Domain Expansion, it became useless to Eden since all attacks inside his domain were sure hit.
And if someone had the capability to avoid the sure hit from his domain, then they would certainly be able to avoid this Perk's.
Dimensional Travel was just a worst version of Eden's Far Step, Speed was interesting but not very attractive to Eden personally, and Truesight was essentially useless to Eden since he already had it basically always active since he could keep it up for 4 hours for only 108 MP.
Besides, there were other better ways to gain permanent Truesight.
All the other ones were interesting though, and Eden kind of wished he had them all, but he could not. Not only because Wish could not grant him Perks of that level, but also because his being was not a bottomless pit.
Eden had managed to get himself Timeless Body through Wish, but he had clearly felt at the time that he had filled a sort of 'slot' within him, and that if he wanted to get another Perk through Wish, Timeless Body would have to go.
As far as he could tell though, that did not apply to Perks gained naturally, through promotion or system rewards.
In any case, Eden had to make a choice. They all offered something of value, but Eden rather quickly fell back on two of them: Boon of the Archmage and Boon of Energy Resistance. One was simply great to any mage, while Energy Resistance would grant him a permanent Resistance to two types of damage, which was a huge advantage to have.
And after a while, Eden ended up choosing Energy Resistance, for no other reason that he already had a lot of HP, and although he would not say no to more, he felt like boosting his defence was more important.
Considering Avatar of Wrath granted Eden Resistance II to Fire, Lightning, Cold and Poison, he immediately crossed them. Also, Eden still had access to the more basic version of the spell, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise, which would grant him Radiant Resistance II and Necrotic Resistance II, so he crossed them as well.
Finally, taking into account his Immunity to Psychic Damage, that only left the easy choice of the last two, Acid and Thunder.
So, even though Gorellik had disappointing loot, at least Eden got a great Perk out of him.
Author's Note: I replaced the Boon of Skill because I thought that was something that could be hardly translated into Dreamland's System. Boon of the Archmage is really cool too.