Dimensional Descent

Leonel really didn't know what to do about this.

If he ignored his already drained stamina and tried to brute force it once again, he would have to rely entirely on luck, and not just any normal amount of luck, but an obscene amount.

If there was a fifty-fifty chance, Leonel might be willing to try it even though it would be a bit foolish. But after just a glance, even though he couldn't calculate the exact number, he knew the odds were lower than one in a thousand. In fact, just saying one in a thousand was probably underestimating the difficulty of this trial far too much.

Until this point, the trials hadn't been too complex, but they would slowly add wrinkles step by step to make it more difficult. Up until now, the first few wrinkles had already been putting pressure on him, but his skill as a bowman had allowed him to make it through.

By the time he got to the sixth trial, however, his skill alone already wasn't enough and he wasn't even certain of how many trials there were left.

From Leonel's calculations, he would have to be at least Tier 4 to brute force this trial, and there was also no guarantee that these trials didn't increase in difficulty with his own prowess. In fact, he had a feeling that the only reason he could brute force a complicated trial like the sixth at all was because he was so much more powerful in comparison to his peers of the same level.

But now it was impossible. The only chance, then, was to find a different method.

These trials wouldn't be designed with a chance at victory. This meant that there was a certain skill necessary to reach this point.

In truth, if Leonel wanted just the normal rewards associated with these trials, he wouldn't be so tired right now. But there was only one goal he had in mind at this point: gain the greatest reward available.

Leonel's eyes suddenly snapped open. "That's it."

Leonel exhaled, the simulation his mind had been going through coming to an end.

The best predictor of future success was past success. After several moments of having no breakthroughs in finding a path out of this trial, Leonel instead decided to replay the other trials in his mind with a specific focus on the sixth. What he found made his eyes light up.

When he looked at things in the sixth trial through normal eyes, there really was no pattern of flight. However, when Leonel filtered it through the reward of the sixth trial, everything changed.

In a two-dimensional perspective, there really was nothing to be seen. But from a three-dimensional perspective, everything changed.

The flight paths were very cleverly designed to hide this from Leonel, especially since his Internal Sight was sealed away after the third trial was completed.

When Leonel realized this he replayed the fifth trials and backward in his head, applying the new abilities he gained from them and he realized the truth. It seemed that the easiest method to make it through these trials was to somehow gain an inkling into what the ultimate reward for the trial would be. Only in that way could you find a path out.

But this was easier said than done, even for Leonel. Still, he had one method in his back pocket. He would use all of the rewards he had gotten until now at once.

Leonel's gaze flashed. Deep within their pale violet hues, a glass-like Force took shape, making one feel as though they were looking into a mirror when they faced him.

Leonel layered all of the rewards on top of one another.

Sharpened vision. Infrared vision. X-ray vision. Force vision. Force Flow vision. Three-dimensional vision.

Leonel's gaze watched it all, layering the feedback atop of one another and forcing himself to take in every detail. Others might find themselves overloaded quickly, but this was what Leonel felt he was best at.

His pupils danced back and forth, taking in every target one after another, looking for something, anything.

He observed the targets from all angles, from above, from below, from the sides. Red veins pulsed within the whites of his eyes and his focus was unprecedented and unmatched. He didn't seem to notice the throbbing at all.

Slowly, the movements of the circular orbs of lights and their flickering colors became rainbow colored lines in Leonel's vision. He layered their paths on top of one another, building a maze of networks in his head that became more and more complicated with every passing moment.

And then, it all seemed to slow.

Something in Leonel's mind seemed to snap and he raised his bow.

His movements were quick and sharp, but also fast and steady. Every time he realized another arrow, it was as though he was simply releasing a breath, his chest moving up and down in a steady rhythm.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

…

On the outside, a shocking change was taking place. The pagoda that always seemed to fluctuate between three and twelve floors had been frozen.

The three youths, Mallael, Cras and Kysen had all been kicked out after the fourth trial, but currently, the pagoda was showing seven. Previously, he had steadily risen from four to its current stage now, leaving the Archery Faction in silence… because they all knew exactly what this meant.

Those of the Bow Deity Party looked on with ugly expressions. They had already heard the news from the three youths who had exited so they knew exactly who was inside, but they could do nothing about it.

However, when the pagoda switched from seven floors to eight, a tsunami rushed through the Archery Faction.

…

Leonel exhaled a breath, his gaze sharp. Slowly, the changes due to absorbing the Force Art made themselves known. At first, he was still calm, but after a while, even his eyes could only widen.

For a very long while, even with his intelligence, he couldn't quite explain just what he was seeing. And in the end, he felt that only one word was appropriate…

Flow.