Dimensional Descent

Leonel's fist shot forward, blasting the head of the spirit into pieces.

After he was done, he almost felt bad about it. He had just reacted as quickly as he could and didn't even think much. The poor guy didn't even get a chance to take a good look at his face.

'I should put on some clothes…'

Leonel, unfortunately, didn't have another pair of sweatpants, so he could only use Valiant Heart Mountain's white pair of hammer pants. It would have to do for now.

Despite his success, Leonel didn't feel any sort of complacency. The road ahead still seemed endless and it was impossible to tell how many more opponents he would need to face. Who knew, maybe after a hundred more rounds, he would be right back to gasping for air.

Thinking to this point, Leonel measured the change of his strength he calculated with his last leap, then adjusted himself immediately.

It only made sense that he had missed the mark like this. Though Leonel had been taken 'measured' steps in the past, that didn't mean he was going slow—at least not in the eyes of a normal human. After all, he had to cover a kilometer in less than a hundred seconds, that would be like running that 100 meters ten times at world class Third Dimensional speed.

He had been trying to tap into that speed once again, but forgot to account for the change in his body's strength because he knew he was running out of time before the spirit appeared again. He didn't want to take on any added weight he didn't have to.

'Hm…?'

Leonel blinked.

His weight… It hadn't increased…

Leonel's gaze narrowed. Could it be that this hadn't been the trial? Or could it be that he was still at the Fourth Dimensional level and as such since he had cleared the mark, he wouldn't have to deal with any of the drawbacks for now?

Leonel wasn't sure which it was. He really didn't have enough information. He had already tried to ask the dictionary about it, but it mostly functioned on scanning things. The information it stored was limited, and it seemed to not be capable of scanning this trial region.

The further Leonel progressed, the less enigmatic and omniscient the dictionary seemed to become.

Leonel pressed forward, but having adjusted himself, his steps were still calm and perfect. Since he didn't know how long this would go for, he needed to use all the time he had to improve as much as possible.

The next mystery he chose to tackle was quite a simple one on the surface, but the further he dug, the more his gaze narrowed.

Why was it that his silver-white Stars were silver-white while his blue Stars were blue?

It was an innocent enough question. The answer also seemed to be obvious as well. There was only silver-white Star Force on Earth and only blue Star Force here. Mystery solved, right?

If one concluded this, though, didn't that mean that the strength or abilities of your Star were dependent on where you formed them? In that case, did that mean that Leonel was at a disadvantage because he formed his first Three Stars on a Third Dimensional world?

Something so important, shouldn't the creator have mentioned it? Or was that sadistic bastard playing tricks again?

It was easy to fall into this belief, even Leonel felt that it might be true. But, something about it all felt… off. As though Leonel was missing something important.

Of course, there was also the possibility that Leonel was wrong and this was true. But in that case, could he replace the foundational energy of his Stars?

With far more minds to work with, Leonel assigned one to forging out his Nodal Pathways, then split the rest between his Spear Domain, comprehending his Stars, and formulating new Star Elemental Mage Arts.

As for why he only assigned a single one to his Nodal Pathways, it was because the more he formed at once, the more Star Force it would take. It wouldn't be smart to drain himself in such an intensive battle environment.

Leonel continued forward like a madman with only improvement on his mind. All he could think about was becoming a step more powerful with every second, not knowing what kind of challenge laid ahead for him.

Of course, he had no idea that he was currently dead last and even the second to last individual was several hundred battles ahead of him.

**

"Alright."

Aina spoke indifferently, brandishing her ax. Despite the speed at which she swung it, there was no sound of whistling wind nor did the air shift at all.

Her father simply nodded and vanished once again.

Just now, Miel had come to bring her news of an opportunity to enter a Sub-Dimensional Zone of the Viola family.

Entering a Zone on a Sixth Dimensional world was a fool's dream for the current Aina. One had to remember that a normal Zone was a location where higher Dimensional Realms touched upon lower Dimensional ones. This meant that the Zones that would appear here may very well have Seventh Dimensional threats.

That said, the Viola family controlled more than just a single world and, among them, there were more appropriate Zones that could be entered, especially if things were accomplished as a team.

…

Days later, Aina found herself not on another world, but rather a moon. The atmosphere was thin, the ground dusted by dry red sand and rock, and the beaming stars in the distance made one feel an undying dread for the heat.

By her side, both Yuri and Savagn were present, all of them wearing what could be considered to be excellent flexible armors even for warriors of the Fifth Dimension, accentuating their figures quite perfectly.

At that moment, a young man with deep black hair and twinkling violet eyes stepped forward.

"I am Samson, a Junior General of the Sixth City. I know that some of you may be disappointed as it is usually Rychard's job to introduce potential Vassals to their first trial, but he was suddenly summoned some weeks ago for an important mission, so you'll have to settle for me."

Samson smiled lightly. Despite his candor and warmth, though, the disappointment on the face of many couldn't be hidden. How had they gone from Rychard, a potential Heir to the Viola family, to Samson, someone from the Sixth City…?

This wasn't just a single step down…