Dimensional Descent

Many hours later, Elthor returned to a small home of wood and hay. When he closed the door, he breathed out a long sigh.

He wasn't sure if he had made the right choice or not, but his instinct told him that this was the best case scenario for the current moment. Whether or not that yellow dressed woman's intentions were pure or not, he had no idea. He could only do his best to ensure that this Oryx Tribe survived.

Sitting down on a mat of tied together thin strips of wood, Elthor calmed his breathing. It was about time he started his training regimen for the night. But, first…

Elthor pulled out the talisman from within his spatial ring. He didn't worry about being overheard because Leonel had already left certain fail safes for this.

He replayed the message he received earlier and nodded to himself.

Like he had thought before, this message wasn't from Leonel. Rather, it was from a person named Allan. He remembered Leonel describing him as a man who wore glasses for the hell of it. If he recalled correctly, Leonel seemed to have been laughing a bit too hard at that prospect, humor he didn't quite understand.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that Leonel's own father wore glasses for no reason as well. It didn't make sense in the past considering Earth's technology, and it made even less sense now that Leonel knew how powerful his father probably was.

Leonel, for some reason, found it amusing to compare Allan to his father, another thing that Elthor wouldn't understand.

If Elthor knew Allan, though, he'd know why Leonel found it so hilarious. Before Leonel's breakthrough into the Fourth Dimension, it could be said that Allan's physique was the greatest out of all of them. The man was chiseled year-round and never took a break on anything whether it came to his diet or training.

But, at the same time, he didn't chase women, he always wore baggy clothing, and he cosplayed like he was a nerd even to the point of being obsessed with computer programming. If it wasn't because they shared a locker room together, none of them would ever know how ripped Allan was.

Leonel had known Allan for so long that it all seemed normal to him by this point. But, he realized when he was trying to describe him to Elthor that all his teammates were a bunch of weirdos, so he had laughed beside himself.

This aside, Allan had contacted Elthor to let him know that he had managed to establish contact with Kaela and the other former members of the Polished Glass Faction. Very soon, Elthor would be able to accept a shipment that would be a great boon.

Leonel didn't detail his other plans to him, but it seemed that Allan and the Polished Glass Faction would become the backbone of raising funds while Leonel was away. With their help and Leonel's support from the background, they should be able to accumulate enough fairly quickly.

In the past, there used to be many Oryx Tribes but war and attrition had whittled them down to just one. This singular Oryx Tribe contained about 10 000 Oryx, a number that almost made it a shame to consider them as a mere Tribe. It was just unfortunate that their living conditions were so sorely lacking.

The Oryx had emphasized fighting prowess for the sake of survival so much, that they had lagged behind in other aspects from sanitation all the way up to agriculture.

Though there would be too much stress for Leonel to support so many, so early on, it shouldn't be a problem to keep the elites well fed.

As the skill of Allan and the others grew, it would only become easier to accommodate them all.

'We need to hurry…' Elthor thought, putting the talisman away as he took deep breaths. '… The unknown organization led by that woman isn't going to give us the time we need…'

It all depended on how fast Leonel could get back here.

**

Leonel's spear shot forward again, piercing through yet another spirit. He had already been in this place for three months by this point and if it wasn't for the fact his mind wouldn't let him forget, he would have lost count of the number of battles he had fought.

By now, Leonel was certain of one thing.

The first was that the color of his Stars was indeed reliant on his environment and they didn't seem capable of being changed. Even when he tried to flood blue Star Force toward his white stars, it was purified back into white.

However, this didn't seem to be as big of a problem as he thought because he could evolve his Stars as he pleased… The only issue lay in the fact his Stars were out of wack.

The foundation of the Third Dimension was supposed to be energy. The foundation for the Fourth was meant to be the body. And the foundation for the Fifth was supposed to be the mind.

But, while Leonel's blue Star Force was perfectly tailored for his body, the silver-white Star Force he had absorbed for the Third Dimension worked best for his mind.

His blue Stars weren't as good as his silver-white Stars at replenishing his mind. And, in the vice versa, his silver-white Stars had never been very good at helping his body out.

After a while of panicking about this, Leonel realized that he was overthinking things.

The Star Force that formed his Star Constitution wasn't tied to the [Dimensional Cleanse] technique at all. Whenever Leonel used [Dimensional Cleanse], he didn't have to communicate with his Stars first. It was more accurate to say that his Stars were a byproduct allowed by cultivating the technique and priming the body properly. They could almost be seen as a separate existence!

This was excellent. This meant that even if Leonel had wanted nine Stars to be entirely focused on his mind, or nine entirely focused on his body, it wouldn't be a problem.

This also meant that when he formed his Seventh to Ninth Stars, he could use a Star Force that would be perfectly suited for his energy… And he had a feeling that he had the perfect Star Force to fulfill that role already.

Leonel's lip curled as his senses swept over his kidney. What better choice than his Scarlet Star Force?

In these three months, he had already managed to complete all of his Nodal Pathways. It was only a matter of time before he stepped into the Fifth Dimension.

Unfortunately…

Leonel's upturned smile faded. 'This road hasn't given me any clues about the next part of [Dimensional Cleanse], I have no idea how to continue… How much longer is it…?'

Leonel still had no idea that he hadn't been meant to deduce the next stage of [Dimensional Cleanse] himself at all…

However, what was once a 'peaceful' journey forward was very soon to become something much different.

Leonel looked up, his pupils constricting.

There, just barely peeking over the horizon, Leonel finally caught sight of a second road.

'I'm not alone?'