Dimensional Descent

Leonel's body, which had been lifted from the star road, fell back down heavily upon it. He landed on his feet, but his face was obstructed by the sheer length of his light violet hair. It covered his body and his face, cascading for hundreds of meters as though it had a mind of its own.

Leonel exhaled a breath. Even from beneath his endless pile of hair, the billowing steam made its presence known.

Leonel's long hair blew out of the way, revealing a body that put even Aphestus' to shame. Despite the fact Leonel had never been as obsessed with training his body as Aphestus was, it seemed that his breakthrough had reformed his image into something the Romans would have carved out from white stone.

From top to bottom, Leonel was covered in a sheen of colorless sweat that still pumped out what remained of his body's impurities. However, by this point, his body had grown so pure that even his sweat itself released a refreshing aura, smelling like a faint cinnamon with just the slightest touch of honey.

The fibers of his muscles could be seen from beneath his skin, their steel cord like construction wiggling about and following the contours of his tan. His abs seemed to have one too many pairs for a normal human and large veins pumped throughout his body, giving him a vascularity that put most body builders to shame.

And yet, he was a lean, explosive machine, even down to his defined quads and calves of his legs.

Leonel knew that this must be the result of his Metal Body. He had never had such defined muscles in his life despite the fact he had always been fit. That was definitely the only explanation, and he was correct.

When Leonel's body was reconstructed, the explosive strength of his Metal Body could finally manifest itself. The bulging strength that had been hiding all this time made itself known, threatening to burst out from Leonel's skin.

If one peeled all of Leonel's skin off and took a look at the muscles beneath. Rather than a pure healthy pink, it would be tinted with a slight bronze that made it look as though his body itself was becoming a machine.

Even though Leonel could tell that he was also far heavier than he had been in the past, he somehow simultaneously felt as light as a feather. His every breath filled him with a seemingly endless energy, his every heartbeat circulating his blood at impossible speeds.

Still, Leonel hadn't expected to step to the top of the Fourth Dimension in one sweep like this. He had yet to branch out his Nodal Pathways so it was quite shocking that he had managed to do so, at least on first inspection.

Ultimately, the Fourth Dimension was all about bringing the body up to standard to deal with subsequent evolutions one would undergo in the future. However, Leonel, who had a Tier 9 Metal Body, had already laid out the perfect foundation for this.

The Fourth Dimension made use of Nodal Pathways to accomplish this, but Leonel's Metal Body made use of his Bronze Runes.

One had to remember that because Leonel had managed to open the Fourth Dimensional Gate of his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor to the ninth level, even his very bones had been carved with his Runes.

Thanks to this, the depth and completeness of Leonel's Metal Body was at the highest possible level, allowing it to complete the same task Nodal Pathways would be able to and thus allowing his body to be capable of withstanding being filled to the brim with Star Force immediately upon his breakthrough.

Of course, this didn't mean that Leonel's Runes could replace his Nodal Pathways. If he didn't begin to form them on his own, it would cause problems in the future. But, at least for now, there was no problem treating them interchangeably.

Leonel nodded to himself, rolling his forearms before his eyes. He still couldn't believe all the veins popping up across his body, it almost felt unnatural to him.

'Once I finish forming my Nodal Pathways, I should be able to step into the Fifth Dimension right away, then… I don't think that would take more than a few months…'

The unfortunate part about Leonel's Metal Body was that due to its sturdiness, rearranging his cells and forming new pathways was now far more difficult. Had he not had a Metal Body, maybe just a few days would have been enough to finish since he had more than enough Star Force and wouldn't face bottlenecks. But, Leonel wasn't too disappointed.

There were people stuck at the Fourth Dimension all their lives. Plus, a few months would probably still have him stuck in this place so it didn't make much of a difference one way or another.

Leonel shook his head, grabbing at his hair and slicing it short again. He felt that his hair was easily tens of times tougher than it had been in the past, but thanks to his King's Might, it was just as easy to cut.

'Still no beard…' Leonel shook his head, rubbing his chin in disappointment.

Somewhere deep inside, Leonel felt that he had no beard because he was progressing too quickly. What if he felt like he was 21, but his body still felt like he was 17? How depressing would that be…? Not that a 17 year old without any facial hair whatsoever was exactly normal to begin with…

Maybe he just didn't win the genetic lottery. Of course, if others heard him think such a thing, there wouldn't be enough tomatoes in the world to throw at him.

'Forget it, I'll just stay baby faced forever…'

Leonel stored his hair away as he had done before. He wasn't sure why he did this, but he just felt it would be a shame to get rid of it for some reason. Who knows, maybe one day, it would come in handy.

With that, Leonel shot forward.

What he hadn't expected, though, was for his speed to be so fast that he would leap across over 200 meters in the blink of an eye. By the time he had skidded to a stop, he was already at the next 500 meter mark.

'… Oops?'