Entering the tower of destiny was usually easy to do. But it became extremely difficult to achieve now.
He had to relax and focus on the image of the tower in his mind. Then his mind would find and enter the tower. But he couldn't do that while a predator was breathing down his back urging him to make one wrong move and be devoured.
He couldn't do it even after one hour of trying. So he returned to practicing the Life Escape Ability. It was better to do something worthwhile rather than waste his time.
He practiced it for two hours more. During that time, he managed to extend the time he spent in his miniature state. He also managed to become faster than he was normally. This meant his chances of escaping had increased.
After all, if he was small, numerous, and fast, he would be very difficult to catch. As long as there is no area of attack, his blood clones won't suffer much damage, and he will recover the bulk of his life force.
The next thing he wanted to do was to combine siphoning life force and Life Escape. If he can perform the two actions at the same time, he would be able to extend his Life Escape state indefinitely.
Unfortunately, this step proved to be very difficult to achieve. It was similar to the problem he faced when he tried to enter the tower of destiny. He couldn't focus enough to siphon life force from his surroundings while being in his miniature state.
He couldn't focus on entering the tower of destiny because he was anxious and afraid. But he couldn't focus on combining the two abilities because his mind was scattered.
One was a problem with his state of mind. The other was a problem with his mind. His mind was scattered into the many little portions of himself. He has literally stretched his mind thin to control every portion and make them move in different directions.
He couldn't add the burden of sensing living things around him, focus on them while running, and activate his ability to siphon while controlling his blood clones to run.
It is not just a matter of adding these three steps into the previous command of running in different directions to escape. He had to add to all one hundred of his blood clones. So it was actually 300 extra instructions, not three.
He shook his head and said, "Maybe I bit off more than I could chew. Maybe I can't do it."
Wrath didn't think so. She said, "You just need to increase your Mind attribute, and you will gain better control."
He considered her words and said, "Since it is a matter of control, maybe I should reduce the amount of work my mind has to do first."
Wrath exclaimed, "Yes! That's it. Now you're thinking right. Reduce the amount of blood clones you create."
He nodded. "I always instinctively chose to scatter in the largest number possible to maximize my chances of escaping. I should control it better now until I reach the limit of what my mind can do simultaneously."
He got to work as soon as he found the solution. He activated the life escape method again. His life force was pulled from every part of his body and compressed into a single form.
It was the same process as his previous attempts. But this time, he divided his life force into two equal portions instead of the maximum amount.
Since he was consciously controlling the process of division, it was slower than when he did everything by reflex. But it was also less painful. After all, he didn't cut himself into a hundred pieces. He only cut himself once.
Not only did he feel drastically less pain, but his two blood clones were also more clearheaded. In the past, he could only think of escaping in every direction. But now he could control the two of them to play a game of tag.
The main disadvantage of what he did was that the blood clones were bigger, and each clone contained half of his vitality.
Their large size meant they would be easier to hit and destroy. The life force they contained meant that the destruction of a single one would lead to the loss of 50% of his life force.
Such a loss will deal a great blow to him. But before that happens to him, his two blood clones had no problem sensing living things around him and siphoning life force from them while trying to solve a puzzle simultaneously. It was just too easy for him to do.
He said as much when he reverted to his full form. "It was just too easy. And the process was almost painless. I lost just about 1% of my life force during the process of division itself."
"As for when I was in the state of Life Escape, the loss of life force per second to maintain the state was little, and I could focus enough to siphon it from others, so I could easily replenish what I needed from others."
Wrath was happy for him. She cheered him on. "You can do it. Just take it a little at a time. I'm sure you will be able to gain perfect control of it."
He smiled proudly and resumed his training. He increased the blood clones to four next time. This process involved cutting himself into halves twice.
It was more painful than cutting himself once, but the pain was bearable. The stress on his mind to control the four of them was also manageable. So he continued increasing the life clones to see his limit.
After an hour of intensive work, he discovered that his limit was 64 blood clones. At that point, he was already pushing himself to his limit. Anymore, and his control would break down into only being capable of making the blood clones scatter aimlessly like a pack of rats.