Dimensional Descent

"Give me a drop of your blood," Leonel suddenly said.

Cherie was caught off but eventually complied. There was nothing that she could do to resist anyway, even if Leonel wanted to do something untoward.

She pricked her finger, but before she could take action herself, a strong suction force formed and the blood appeared in a droplet above Leonel's palm. After a moment, a strong surge of Vital Star Force rushed forward and enveloped the blood.

Leonel didn't know a lot about Blood Force, but just from observing Aina, he had come to understand a few things.

The first was that Blood Force was a vessel and a catalyst in one. It was the container through which Life Force was sustained, and it was also the method by which those without Blood Force or Life Force affinity could passively make use of their own Life Force.

Everyone needed Life Force to live, much like everyone needed Dream Force, however not everyone could make active use of it. This was where blood came into play.

Even so, not all Blood Force was created equal. In fact, there were large gaps. Some people were destined to have stronger bodies, stronger vital signs and greater vitality than others, and that would be reflected within their blood.

Whenever Aina stole the Blood Force of an individual, she had to take all of these matters into account. Although she could personally increase the output of Life Force any given drop of blood would output at any given time, there would still be a limit and that would often be decided by the talent of this target individual in that aspect.

Leonel decided, then, to quickly test Cherie and the others and he found that his hypothesis was correct. Even for just a single drop, the amount of Life Force that Cherie's blood could withstand was astounding. In fact, her capacity was the equivalent of Leonel's!

To put this matter into perspective, Leonel had reforged his body with a great emphasis on vitality and Life Force, and of course Water Force although this was less important now. In doing so, his passive healing factor was off the charts and the amount of Life Force his individual droplets of blood could withstand was likewise, astronomical.

This had a profound impact on not only his life, but his stamina as well. Leonel had destroyed four great families back to back to back to back and still had energy left to battle more afterward. In fact, just now, he had been in a violent clash with Harmony and yet his face wasn't even flushed with fatigue.

With all of this put into perspective, for Cherie's Life Force capacity to be the same as his was almost entirely unacceptable… And in fact, it was.

Of course, there was a glaring elephant in the room. This was just Cherie's capacity, not her actual output. Leonel had to add Life Force to Cherie to test her true limits, but the Florer family wasn't taking advantage of this at all!

Ignorance was painful. One of Leonel's inherent fears was his ignorance and how it could potentially stop him from reaching his full potential. Now he was seeing in real time how dangerous ignorance was. The Florer family's entire fate was in the palm of his hands all because they didn't understand how their own Lineage Factor worked. If they had learned how to do things properly long ago, even the current Leonel wouldn't be able to move them. He would have had to be exceptionally cautious with how he proceeded, but now he could practically do as he pleased.

"Why did you pick such a weak tree to form a symbiotic relationship with?" Leonel asked.

Leonel's gaze was still on Cherie's pulsing drop of blood. He wanted to understand the final pieces. He felt like he had about 90% of it, but there were still some gaps that needed to be filled in.

"We… it's difficult to withstand anything more. It's always been tradition to pick our life partner's after entering the Fourth Dimension, but picking a life partner requires splitting your life in half. If the partner requires too much, the fusion will fail and both could die. There have been some who have tried to push the limits, but their outcomes have never been good."

Leonel nodded slowly.

"And why don't you switch to a more powerful partner once you're more mature?"

"The relationship is symbiotic by that point. We have yet to create an effective method of separation that doesn't harm both parties. In addition, the plant grows along with you, so it's never been necessary."

Leonel didn't say anything, but he didn't agree with this. In fact, with his affinity with Life Force now, he was beginning to see living beings in general as just an extension of Force. And, much like Force, even if you could take a Fifth Dimensional Force and have it grow along with you to the Seventh Dimension, it would ultimately be weaker than a Sixth Dimensional Force that had done the same.

In addition, it would take more effort for the Florer family members to grow.

Ultimately, though, this was just an issue of resources and ignorance.

If the Florer family was born with higher standing, or to a higher world, they wouldn't be limited by their low Life Force. They would be able to maximize their Blood Force and fill themselves with vitality. If, for example, they could cultivate a vein of Vital Star Force, this alone would fix all of their problems.

And secondly, because they understood too little about how their own Lineage Factor worked, they hadn't managed to find a reliable method of separating from their original symbiotic partner whereas Leonel felt that he could deduce such a method in just a few minutes.

Leonel fell into his thoughts and tapped his armrest. He originally wanted to destroy the Florer family, but he had already decided against it.

The Oryx were unreliable. Even after all this time, he hadn't heard a word from them. And, it also didn't help that he had wiped out so many of their souls from the Silver Tablet. He would subdue the Oryx in due time, after all he didn't plan on having them waste the investment he had placed in them. However, in the meantime, the Florer, Midas and Radix, and especially the Umbra, would be more than good enough.

"Bring me three of your most talented youths," Leonel suddenly said.