Dimensional Descent

The more Leonel saw of this tense atmosphere, the more put off he was. He could even feel some of these reservations beginning to press upon himself as well. It was simply human nature to follow along with a crowd. But, the oddity of it all was that a genius didn't usually fall into such things so easily.

Leonel couldn't help but wonder what could have happened to such a large group of geniuses for the blades to dull to this extent. What had he missed in these last few months?

The Smithy had three main counters, none of which seemed to be markedly different from the others. Behind each of them, one stoic individual stood. All three were men and completely shirtless.

Whenever someone came forward, an odd looking spatial ring would be handed over, the man would then disappear behind the curtains to their back, only to return several minutes later with the very same odd spatial ring.

The 'client' in this case, would hurriedly take the spatial ring away and rush out of the Smithy with their heads lowered.

The truth was that the only reason Leonel was able to tell this was a Smithy as all was because he was quite sensitive to such things. Though the curtains were embedded with Force Arts that muffled sounds and blocked Force, Leonel could practically smell it in the air.

But that once again left him baffled. Do they really need weapons to this extent…? Unless…

Leonel's gaze narrowed. With a thought, he flipped a palm and a weapon appeared within it. This wasn't a weapon that came out of the Spear Domain. Rather, it was one of the prototypes he had formed to prepare for practicing with his Scarlet Star Force Arts.

There wasn't anything special about the material other than the fact it was Sixth Dimensional. It was only a material of this level that could withstand Destruction characteristics for a long enough period of time for Leonel to make use of it.

For a long while, nothing happened. Several flickering gazes landed on Leonel right then, but each of them turned away just as quickly as though they were scared that others would get the wrong idea.

Even after several minutes passed, nothing happened. But, Leonel's expression only became more serious.

He reached forward with his other hand. With a slight bend of his wrists…

SNAP!

Just like that, a perfectly primed and ready Sixth Dimensional Metal snapped like a twig. Nothing seemed wrong with it initially, and yet it had already crumbled from the inside out.

Those who had been silently observing Leonel snarled. It was obvious that he had figured it out without being told anything. Their efforts at keeping this matter a secret had clearly fallen through.

Without hesitation, Leonel immediately transferred everything within his spatial ring into the Segmented Cube and then brought the cube itself out. He didn't care about the gazes that fell onto it as he forced the Segmented Cube to change its form.

The Segmented Cube was unable to become a spatial ring as it couldn't shrink past a certain point, but Leonel still managed to get it to become a finger sleeve that wrapped around his forefinger in miniature jigsaw pieces.

Leonel gazed upon his original spatial ring, but unsurprisingly, with a light squeeze of his hand, it crumbled to dust.

'It seems that Anarchic Force isn't a joke… Will the necklace be fine…?'

Leonel turned his attention to the necklace that held Wise Star Order and then the necklace that held the golden scaled koi fish. After a few checks, he realized that they still managed to maintain their structural integrity, at least for now. He would have to pay attention to this.

The chain that held the golden scaled koi fish up snapped under a pull from Leonel before crumbling to dust. However, the Ocean Drop Vial was perfectly fine. It seemed that only materials that had a certain standard would be able to survive in this environment. It was likely that even clothing wasn't safe.

Leonel cast another glance and realized that everyone was wearing the same uniform. He hadn't thought about it much because this was an organization after all, of course they would have the same uniforms. But, if he allowed things to continue like this, he would end up naked very quickly.

'The Anarchic Force seems to work slower on normal fabrics because there's no Force to feed off of. But, it'll only be a matter of time before all our clothes crumble to ash.'

Leonel thought back to all those men who were still eyeing everyone he had brought and suddenly understood that maybe their intentions were more… perverted than sinister.

'Seems I'll either need to find a method to gain uniforms or at least build cabins so that everyone can maintain their dignity.'

Leonel had a feeling that the Void Palace wouldn't be giving out these uniforms free of charge.

When one thought about it, what better way would their be to make such a large population of geniuses feel so timid and reserved…?

'These sadistic bastards…'

Leonel almost couldn't refrain from laughing.

They wanted to cut everyone down a peg so they stripped them of their clothing and made them fight for scraps. Leonel had been able to figure out the problem quickly, but what about the others?

There had probably been a time here where everyone was forced to use rocks and planks of wood to cover their decency. How could you continue to be arrogant, prideful and haughty under such circumstances?

It was even worse that Leonel and the others were only given three hours. At this pace, their clothes would be nothing more than ash by the time the True Selections started, and then what?  They were meant to participate naked?

Leonel's amused gaze flickered with a cold light. He didn't actually care about being naked or not, but for some reason, this still made him angry.

At the village entrance, a certain little mink's long whiskers twitched, taking an even more defensive stance around Aina as he freely interpreted Leonel's thoughts.