Chapter 256: Meditating or something IDK

In the end, it took around twenty hours for the first signs of movement from Shizuka. During that time though, Kat had a few things of interest to keep her busy. The first thing she noticed was that her body was different. 

Things were smoother than before in a major way. If before she was at the level of a professional gymnast, now she was well and truly in super human territory with no turning back. Rotating her arms and legs, she could almost feel the muscles gliding around the joints rendering the motion a strange ethereal quality when she walked now.

The same could be said of her wings. Instead of having all the muscles for them bunched up in one spot on her back, they instead seemed to have spread out across her back and the rest of her wings. Rather than flapping them as one large whole, Kat could now flex then almost as well as her tail.

The extra range of motion was limited to mostly around the top, but in addition to that, Kat noticed that she could also do more with her wings. Before, flapping up and down in time was all she could do, now however she could rotate them slightly and change the angle. 

*That's going to help with my flying a great deal.* Kat also tried to check on her strength, but didn't really have a good way to test it. Eventually, after some testing, Kat realised that, while she wasn't stronger demonic energy could leak into whatever she was carrying if she willed it producing some interesting affects.

The best example of this was something she did somewhat regret doing, but nobody saw her and nobody would know. She was testing her strength and found that lifting the bed with Shizuka on it was easy. 

Lifting it with one hand was just as simple. Lifting it with a finger, the same… but also impossible. It took Kat a second to even realise what the problem was. She had been lifting the bed by the corner and instead of obeying the laws of physics and tilted at the midpoint it just happily stayed balanced on her finger.

It was difficult sure, and Kat felt the strain kick in almost instantly, but for a few seconds she was able to support the entire structure on the tip of her finger without it falling over. Kat was unsure what this meant exactly, but suspected it meant she would now slightly coat things she lifted with energy and then tie that back to her allowing for her to lift with her whole body even if the object was only attached to one part of it.

So obviously Kat did the same thing anyone else would do in this situation and tried to balance on her tail. To her surprise it worked perfectly. Kat flew slightly before lowering herself down onto her tail and coiling it a bit just to help ease the pressure along a greater length. 

The plan worked like a charm, and Kat could build herself a sort of chair and pretend to meditate. *Hey system, now that I've tested some things out, I'm still not sure what strange rank 2 ability you think I have. My upgrades… well they aren't as impressive as going from human to rank 1, but they are still pretty good. I just don't get what one would be considered strange.*

User Kat's dream walking ability is well above Rank 2 standard ability. It's timely addition and considerable power is an anomaly. 

Kat froze. *Um? Pardon? Did you say MY dream walking ability? What are you talking about? *

User Kat's Rank 2 ability is a variant Dream Walker ability. This ability normally appears in Rank 6 or higher demons, or with Rank 3 and higher sloth demons. To have received such an ability at Rank 2 from outside of your domain is an anomaly. 

*Wait hold on what? I don't have a dream walker ability though! That was part of Enuko's spell, I didn't do anything at all.*

User Kat is mistaken. Summoner Enuko's spell ensured that the body belonging to ERROR did not awaken and further enhanced the mindscape allowing for more consequential actions to be taken within dreamscape. 

*Wait… so… I can enter dreams now or something?*

User Kat is correct. True extent of variant Dream Walker is unclear at this time.

*Huh… well… ok then.* Kat looked down at Shizuka and bit her lip. *I could test it? Nah I don't want to risk causing any trouble. Hmm, was that the switch I felt before?* Kat pushed her energy to that same place in the 'back' of her head.

The button was still there. She could feel it and gave it a slight poke. She felt the switch shudder slightly but nothing else happened. *Well dam I guess I do have that kind of power.*

After Kat finished identifying that, she tried to get some rest of her own. She moved over to the wall and altered her tail chair a bit so that she could lean against it and take some of the pressure of, spreading it more evenly around her body. 

Kat shut her eyes and started to go to sleep when something strange happened. She could feel her body falling asleep, but her mind seemed… strange. Instead of blacking out completely it felt more like she was underwater, and she could almost feel her body.

Trying to move slightly made ripples in the 'pond' this amused Kat slightly, but when she tried to ponder it more thoroughly, she found that no thoughts would form. In a panic, Kat jolted awake. 

The 'pond' disappeared as she through her eyes open. Looking around there was nothing out of place and Shizuka was still sleeping peacefully. What was that?

Due to User Kat's Dream Walker, User Kat appears to have achieved a low level of Demonic Meditation without training

*Um… what?*

Demonic Meditation – A substitute for sleep that most Demons are trained in. This ability requires only a minor amount of training and is sometimes trained before even reaching Rank 1. Demons that haven't tried it before Rank 4 will pick it up as a Rank 5 ability which is considered a large waste of potential. Thus, most Demons train it up before.

Counter to this however, some factions believe that you get a superior version of Demonic Meditation if you unlock it at Rank 5. Data on this is inconclusive, as most Demons that reach Rank 5 train their Demonic Meditation and thus it improves. Insufficient numbers are forced to unlock the ability at Rank 5 to properly compare. 

*Huh… and so… is it always like that? With a pond and the ripples?*

No. User Kat seems to have Water Class meditation. This is likely a related to User Kat's Ice attributed Demonic Flame.

*Right… so is this good?*

No known Demonic Meditation technique is considered superior to any other. Arguments have been made but the most commonly held opinion between those researching the topic is that with time and training all Demonic Meditation types are equal but not necessarily suited to the individual. Thus finding a matching Meditation is best. 

*So… is mine considered matching? Is that something I should get around to at some point?*

User Kat likely has a compatible Demonic Meditation as it manifested as a side effect from a Rank ability. 

*What other techniques are there?*

That information requires a higher Rank to access.

*Welp… ok then.* 

Thus Kat sunk back into her strange meditation. It didn't seem to be all that useful. When she sunk into the waters her thoughts slowed and things didn't come together easily. Her mind was forced to drift on with the slight whirl of the water around her. 

Kat couldn't feel her body properly when in the water, it made her almost feel like she was one and the same with the pond. It was however, supremely calming once she had gotten used to it, and as time passed, she started to sink further and further into the state. 

And it was in her mediative state that Kat spent the majority of her twenty waiting hours. Even for her it would seem she needed to recentre herself and get some proper rest just the same as Major, Minor, and Enuko did. Despite her body's ability to continue onward, her mind was worse for wear than it seemed. 

As such Kat's psyche happily gave itself to the pond. Spreading out, and recombining and healing the stress she hadn't realised had been accumulating in her mind. The water seemed to help cleanse her tense muscles. 

After those twenty hours of rest, ripples started to permeate Kat's pond. When they appeared Kat's drifting consciousness seemed to scramble to put itself together, which the main body of thought could only consider strange. That was until Kat's mind started to awaken itself and noticed where the ripples were coming from. Forward, and slightly to the right. Exactly where Shizuka had been sleeping. 

Kat threw her eyes open.