Directly after the Professor left the store, Rei could feel his cultivation method refining an ability. Once he started meditating to check what ability he gained, he found himself within his sea of consciousness, staring at a colorless, transparent orb, which seemed to hold an entire galaxy within.
'Huh. Guess this is what refined abilities look like, before they are completely absorbed. Gotta give it to whoever created this design, this does look good, though maybe a bit over the top, if this stays the same for all abilities, no matter how common.'
------- somewhere, within a mystical garden -------
The Original (A/N: I'll be calling it that way while writing about it, just in speeches it will be mostly called Grandpa, dependant on who is speaking.) was sitting at a table, carefully putting miniature stars and planets together to build a universe, glowing in all kinds of colors. And just as it was about to put in the last star in - "Achoo!" - and it all got launched all over the entire garden.
"Damnit! Why did I have to have my first sneeze in several billion years, just when I was about to finish this universe? Now I have to do it all again!"
------------- back in the store with Rei --------------
'So, let's see what this ability is... Well, it's called 'Perfect Control', so I guess it's something like being able to perfectly control strength, energy and so on? Either way, can only be good.'
As such, he began assimilating the ability into himself, or rather watched it being assimilated, by being sucked into the deepest point of his sea of consciousness, which was directly below his mind palace, only to slowly dissolve itself into motes of light, fusing with his mind palace, in the process giving the Palace a slight glow. Only enough to really see it if it was dark in the surroundings or you were especially looking for it. Once it was completely assimilated, Rei immediately felt, that he could freely control all of his energy and abilities, as if he had trained with them for over a hundred years.
'This gives me an idea... But it will have to wait for a bit, first I will complete my non-elemental Qi-cultivation and choose a new type of energy to cultivate.'
After thinking this, Rei began actively supporting and accelerating the mixing of the non-elemental Qi into his sea of consciousness, slowly making the light blue spiritual energy take on a white glow. Once the mixture was completely saturated he felt a wave of revigorating and strengthening energy permeate his entire being. He suddenly felt, that his senses and thoughts had become way better than before, as if they were clouded before and were now liberated. It was an intoxicating feeling, stunning Rei for a few moments, marveling at his new senses. After getting used to his new senses he then started thinking about what to cultivate next.
'Hmmm. What type of energy should I cultivate next? Right now, I see two main energies I want, Soul energy and Dream energy. While Soul energy would strengthen my soul and by extension propably my sea of consciousness, dream energy is simply to versatile. I mean, once I have enough control over it, which is easy with my 'Perfect Control' ability, I could technically bring dreams into reality thereby essentially warping reality itself... But I suppose it would be better in the long run, to first cultivate soul energy, since dream energy should be pretty high level and accordingly taxing. So, soul energy it is!'
Once he decided on his new energy, he woke up for a bit, only to set the energy in his bedroom to soul energy and start cultivating it once again. This time it was far easier, since he didn't even need to create the pathway for it, but only needed to guide it into the already existing pathway, painting the stream of glowing, white, non-elemental Qi within the same color as his sea of consciousness.
The moment the stream met his sea of consciousness Rei as if something he had been missing missing for so long, he didn't even know it was missing, had returned to him. It wasn't anything like when he completed his previous energy, there was no exhilarating feeling or power up, no new abilities, he just suddenly felt... at peace. As if he had come back home from a long journey.
'Choosing to cultivate soul energy first really was the correct choice. Just with this much my emotions are much more stable. If my emotions were as unstable as before, I might have used dream energy without even knowing that I used it, not to mention for what.'
(A/N: So, dream energy responds to the dreams, emotions, needs and desires of the user once these are strong enough, with this, the MC basically has the ability to limit his emotions to a certain limit, drastically lowering the chances of unknowingly using dream energy, or any energy based on emotions and such, but didn't make them zero, example: a loved one is about to be killed. His emotions would get out of control and save that person. Doesn't mean he'll find someone like that, just as an example. He might though.)
'Alright, now I just need to try and see if I can implement the Idea I got before and welcome a new customer'
Thinking this, Rei woke up and walked into the main room of his shop. Once there, he wished for a new addition to the cafe, where the customers could try out the techniques and knowledge thy got here in a simulation, even going so far as to simulate every type of energy in the entire multiverse, along with it's effects and all their good and bad sides. this would allow his customers to try and learn how to do it without harming themselves, without actually doing it, since it really is only a simulation. (A/N: Thank you Doig for this idea)
Once this was done, he was standing in front of a few simulation capsules, like those Full Dive cabins he had seen in anime back on earth. Afterwards Rei went to the counter and gave the door the signal to bring in the next customer.
"Welcome to the Akashik Cafè, leader of Grigori, Azazel!"