Dimensional Descent

Leonel took a breath and exhaled. It seemed that things would be more annoying now. He didn't think that after consuming hundreds of thousands of years of passed down laws, that just 20 or so years would be enough to change so much. 

But if what this overseer was saying was correct, these laws didn't even appear alongside the other ones. Due to the suddenness of the change, it had become a loose, law of the jungle type situation. Leonel didn't believe that if he checked the laws now that there would be something that allowed the monopolization of missions, so it could only be said that this was being tacitly allowed for the moment due to extenuating circumstances. 

After a moment of thought, Leonel turned to Aina. 

"Check to see how many Void Merits you have."

Aina nodded and brought out her own disciple badge, but when she did so, the overseer was startled. 

Void Merits? Did these two confuse Void Merits with Void Points? 

Due to the changes, Void Merits had become even more of a rarity than they had in the past. With the most difficult missions being monopolized by a very small minority, the chances regular students had at earning Void Merits had dwindled significantly. 

The result of this was an already rare currency, becoming even rarer. If you weren't the pinnacle of your Rank, the chances of you having Void Merits was almost nil. 

However, the overseer remained quiet and still checked, only to be shocked into silence. 

"2124 Void Merits."

The overseer looked toward Leonel and Aina again, suddenly understanding that he had made a mistake, a very big mistake. 

It had to be understood that even one Void Merit was extraordinarily difficult to procure. To have 100 would mean that you were in the percent of the 1%, if not even greater. He didn't even know how to categorize someone who had over a thousand. 

However, what confused him even more was that when he said this number, Leonel and Aina didn't look happy at all. In fact, when they looked toward each other, there was an unconcealed dissatisfaction. It was clear that they had thought of the same thing at the same time. 

2124 Void Merits? According to Leonel's calculations, Aina should have over 50 000 Void Merits by now. 

He had already done the calculations before. She received 27 Void Merits for her place on the current leaderboards and 150 for her place on the all time leaderboards. At 177 Void Merits a piece, multiplied over the 23 years they had been gone, plus the one year Leonel spent training his spear, that should accumulate to over 50 000. 

This math was so easy for Leonel that he didn't even need a single second to finish them. The moment that he heard the number started with a two, he had realized that there was an issue. 

2124 Void Merits was exactly the amount of Void Merits that Aina would have for one year. But they had been gone for over two decades and the Void Palace should have been reestablished long ago. 

With this being the case, how could Aina have so few Void Merits? 

"You two…" The overseer shuddered, it clicked for him in an instant. "You two just returned?"

It finally made sense. The only way one could accumulate so many Void Merits was through the use of the leaderboards. At the same time, this would explain their dissatisfaction. They were definitely expecting to see more than they got. 

"Yes, we did just return. Can you explain to us why my girlfriend's merits aren't adding up?"

It wasn't just the number that was lacking. If the Void Palace chose not to count the two or so decades, the number Aina had was actually too high. After all, Leonel and she had used some of it before the cataclysm. 

But this number was exactly enough for one year, and then it stopped. Why was that? 

"I see… When the first batch returned from the Zone, not everything snapped back into place immediately and a lot of this was unorganized. It wasn't until a good portion of the Void Elders returned that we finally gained a semblance of order. 

"Due to this, a lot of things had to be shuffled around and reset. For those on the leaderboard, all Void Merits were wiped and everyone received exactly one year worth of what they should have, before you had to work for everything all over again.

"This was also necessary because things like the Void Tower and the previous Gold and Amethyst Tokens rules didn't work particularly well for the Cataclysm Generation."

"The Cataclysm Generation?" Leonel raised an eyebrow. 

"Yes, that generation is the last to enter the Void Palace right before the cataclysm struck, so that's the name they go by. 

"As the story goes, there was a Leonel Morales who ruined a lot of things. Word said that he received an Amethyst Token without properly earning it, and then he entered the Void Tower and reached a floor level that didn't make any sense. 

"In addition, that generation had a lot of talents that would have been Amethyst Token wielders in almost any other generation. So because of the pressure the Human Domain was under, the Void Senate thought it best to provide these geniuses a fast track. Thus, a compromise was struck. 

"On the one side, those that came before gained a year worth of resources they earned all at once, while on the other side, all those of the Cataclysm Generation that proved themselves worthy through a the Cataclysm Event were allowed to become Galaxy Ranked disciples directly by undergoing the Void Tower trials. 

"Due to that, the leaderboards were cleansed and everything was reset once again, and that's why we have the situation we do now."

Leonel's gaze flickered with a cold light. "The Void Senate, huh…?" 

Leonel's placid expression gave way to an icy smile. So the Void Tower was reset? How interesting.