Dimensional Descent

Leonel opened his eyes once more, a pool of calmness resting within their pale violet depths.

Funny enough, what he most struggled with wasn't the emotions themselves, but rather the decision to abandon them or not. With the balance having been even, the choice was left to him. The 'logical' decision was to leave things as status quo. After all, a tie was usually dealt with in that fashion. But, such a decision also meant that he would have to carry this around and he almost… didn't want to.

It was impeding his thought process too much, taking up too much of his time. In the end, Leonel was forced to compartmentalize his distracting thoughts. However, somehow, one mind didn't seem enough to do that. He was forced to assign over a hundred before they were satisfied, and that left him at a 10% deficit he wouldn't normally have.

Still, Leonel paid the price. Anything so that his mind would be clear and free. If he hadn't done this, the impact to his cognitive function would have been even worse.

At least now he could split his mind more than a thousand ways. Since he had gotten by with just a few dozen in the past, if he couldn't wreak havoc with over 900, then he might as well give up all his goals right this moment.

With that done, Leonel took out the piece of polished Memory Ore. It had been with him for years already, but this was only the second time he had it in his hands like this.

It had a gentle oval shape to it and it was such a shimmering silver that Leonel could see even his own reflection with astounding clarity. And yet, it felt rough to the touch.

Leonel was certain that the Memory Ore hadn't felt like this when he first got it. But, now something had changed… After eliminating several possibilities, Leonel realized that it must be that his own sensitivities had evolved.

Not only did Leonel's Tier 9 Metal Body make him far more sensitive to Ores and their refined metals, but the habit Leonel had built in splitting his minds to increase his sensory perception was also coming into play as well.

Leonel realized at the moment that his Internal Sight wouldn't be enough to read this map. Even though he had entered the Fifth Dimension with his Dream Force, it was being weighed down by his true Dimension. He would have to rely on a combination of his Variant Earth Affinity and his Internal Sight to accomplish his goal.

After observing the Memory Ore for a moment longer, Leonel focused and began to read it.

According to Uncle Montez, this Memory Ore was a map. But, Leonel knew that Memory Ore was capable of housing so much information that the computer chips of even 25th century Earth would run out of space before even a dent could be put into it. And that was ALL the computer chips to ever exist and would ever exist. The difference was that exaggerated.

Leonel found it hard to believe that a map would need so much space. And, if it did… How could he ever read it?

A Memory Ore would be capable of housing a map of the entire universe. But, if this was really what was in here, Leonel might as well give up and choose a different technique to enter the Fourth Dimension with.

How would he even begin to orient himself on such a large map?

Leonel could only hope that while the Memory Ore had such great capacity, only a fraction of it was being used. Maybe it was just a habit of large families and organizations to waste Memory Ore like this? Even on Earth the rich like using precious metals in places they had no business being… like toilets.

What Leonel actually found, though, left him stunned.

'This isn't a map… There's not even any information in here… What is this? A clue? An encryption?'

The image Leonel was seeing was blurry at first. One had to remember how difficult it was to use Memory Ores. It required an incredibly subtle use of Soul Force to disrupt its chemical structure. This disruption could then be decoded as a message by the next individual.

The issue with this, though, was that reading a Memory Ore was like wading through a mine field. If you were too forceful or not careful enough, you could disrupt the chemical structure and thus destroy the information you were trying to read.

Of course, Leonel's own Dream Force was still too weak to inspire grand changes in such a high level ore, which was ironically why it was still possible for him to do this with little experience. However, even if he caused a small shift… In a map that was meant to point to a position in the vastness of this universe, he could very well end up tens of thousands of light years off course.

So, Leonel was careful. Even with how confident he was in his Dream Force control, he was even more careful than he had to be. He was taking no chances.

The result was that by the time he could see the first layer of information, he was stonewalled by the fact it wasn't information at all. Or… It wasn't exactly information just yet, more accurately.

Information could be stored in the Memory Ore at several levels. The deepest and most difficult level to read was at the near atomic level. The easiest, though, was stored in about the size of a cell on the human which contained about 100 trillion atoms. So, the disparity was clear.

The good news was that this encryption was on the cell level, so Leonel, who had been working with things that size since he began practicing [Dimensional Cleanse] to begin with, could see it clearly.

The bad news, though, was that that was where the familiarity and ease came to a grinding halt.

Still… A smile curled Leonel's lip.