Dimensional Descent

Leonel's Dream Force acted. Thanks to his Dream Force having fused with his Three Star Constitution, it wasn't restricted by the laws of this place. This thought led one of Leonel's split minds to explore the possibility of fusing other Forces with his Stars, but it was quickly dismissed. It had required a very special set of circumstances to allow for this.

Leonel soon ran into another problem, though… He had never constructed any Star Elemental Mage Arts.

It took a second of his time left—more than he had even spent to deduce things to this level—to reformulate a simple arrow spell to be formed with a Star Elemental foundation.

The moment the Mage Art was complete, to Leonel's pleasant surprise, an arrow of sparkling Star Force radiating a pure silverish white appeared. In fact, Leonel realized the abundance of Star Force was so great in this place that the spell was completed about 10% faster than it would have otherwise been.

Leonel nodded to himself. This was a good sign, he was learning more about this place. Though he was inwardly kicking himself for not trying to deduce these things earlier, it was better now than never.

To Leonel 97 seconds with his thinking speed and split minds might as well have been days. Though, that 97 seconds was now 96. He adjusted himself realizing the next time he calculated the restructuring of a spell, he would have to assign more minds to it to cut down on the time.

Though it was a shame he never formulated any Star Elemental spells, there was no use crying over spilt milk. Now was a unique opportunity. But, he also wasn't foolish enough to believe that this alone was enough.

The road ahead was nearly endless. Now that he could use spells, he would indeed have some added flexibility in battle, but it wasn't enough to be life changing. At the very least, he would need time to formulate more powerful spells that would have a greater impact.

That placed him right back at square one. King's Might and his Spear Domain.

In that moment of life and death before, his mind had gone blank and his instinct had taken over. Leonel wasn't a fool, he knew well what this meant. The instinct he hated so much—or, rather, disliked—had actually been the very thing to save his life.

As Leonel's mind grew powerful, he unfortunately fell into a very human-like trap, the very same trap so many fell into when they gained new wealth. It was simply human nature…

What happened when someone came into new money? Usually, those who managed to take advantage did the opposite of what was in their nature.

If someone received a promotion at work, they might choose to move into a larger apartment or house, buy a fancier or faster car, maybe have another kid or two to celebrate. What these actions ultimately did was raise their cost of living to the point that even with their promotion, they were once again living life the same way they always had.

How did this apply to Leonel?

Every time he gained a plus one to his split mind and his cognitive function became more powerful, he would assign his ability to do more and more things, to accomplish and seek after more and more. The result was him feeling that even with the capability of splitting his mind more than a thousand ways… that it still wasn't enough.

In battle against an opponent he couldn't properly react to, this shone through like a sore thumb. Leonel's mind was calculating so many things, weeding through so many possibilities, but he hadn't been able to come up with something actionable in those final moments that could save his life. It had been up to his instinct to act for him, the very thing he had looked down upon from the beginning.

Leonel was very stubborn in his own way… It didn't display itself as overt arrogance, at least not often. But, it was there nonetheless. His feelings and the way he did things were quite rigid even when others might tell him to do different.

Why was it that his Spear Domain was his weakest and most neglected Lineage Factor? It was because he kept trying to fit its square peg into a triangular hole.

Every time Leonel mastered a new spear, rather than fusing it with his fighting style, he would build another Dreamscape and add it to his existing one. Then, he would try to calculate when it was the most optimal to use in battle.

Every time Leonel did this, he added another shackle to his Spear Domain. It was meant to be a Lineage Factor all about feel, instinct and fluidity, but Leonel was constantly trying to break it down into an exact science that could be brewed and reproduced.

In a lot of ways, having the Spear Domain Heirloom by his side only exasperated the problem. With so many styles and techniques at his fingertips, it fed into his philosophy all the more.

He always thought that maybe, just maybe, if he memorized enough spear techniques, absorbed enough spear consciousnesses, and mastered enough Spear Domains, he would reach a level where he could instantly react to almost any situation.

And therein lied the problem.

Leonel had over a thousand minds that could think at once. And, he only had access to about 900 of them now. How could he possibly compute things fast enough to react to what was effectively an almost infinite series of possibilities?

He might be able to get away with it if his opponents were relatively tame and his body was in its peak condition. But… As his enemies grew stronger and his body grew heavier… He might as well have been putting the chains around his own neck.

That was the problem… But what exactly was the solution? Was it even possible to reconcile his Lineage Factor with his ability?

No… That wasn't the question, because the answer didn't matter. If he couldn't do so, he would die.

The trouble was how could you allow for computation and feel to coexist?