Dimensional Descent

Leonel smiled as he rubbed Little Blackstar's head.

At the moment, the two were within the Lab Setting which had also gotten a massive upgrade. Rather than a single lab, it might as well have been an entire campus focused entirely on research and higher learning. Leonel even missed the small space and the ambience of it all, honestly. But, at least there were several private rooms he could still take refuge in like this one.

Little Blackstar curled up within a large glass tube which had an opening that had yet to be closed. The vial of Void Beast blood had been inserted into a mechanism to the side. It seemed that the Segmented Cube practically had everything for such an event prepared.

"Next time I see you, you'll have become a little monster." Leonel chuckled.

"Yip! Yip!"

Little Blackstar's long whiskers excitedly twitched. He kept looking over to the Void Beast blood. If not for the fact he knew things would be easier like this, he would have already tried to swallow it whole. Clearly, the little guy liked this present very much.

Leonel laughed. "I'll introduce you to Kira later. You'll have to thank her properly."

"Yip! Yip!"

Leonel reached out a fist and Little Blackstar bumped it with his little claw.

Taking a deep breath, Leonel closed the opening, watching as it filled up with a dense liquid and Little Blackstar fell into a peaceful sleep.

Though Leonel had double, triple, even quadruple checked everything—even to the point of converting a lot of the Seventh Dimension Force the Segmented Cube had remaining into Sixth Dimension Life Force for Little Blackstar—he couldn't help but be worried.

As a mink, Little Blackstar's body was his greatest weakness. Though his talent in the Dark Element was even greater than Leonel's own in the Light Element and his evasion abilities were the greatest Leonel had ever seen, his origins would always be a limiting factor. After all, what was a little mink to all those grand and mythical creatures that existed in the Dimensional Verse?

This Void Beast blood was a chance to loosen and maybe break some of those shackles. But, with that came some risk.

Leonel had minimized it as much as he could. The rest was up to Little Blackstar.

…

Leonel soon found himself strolling through an enormous garden. It was nothing but long stretches of green grass for as far as he could see. He assumed that it was meant to be used for growing vegetation or high level plants, but there was obviously nothing here… Well, except for the apple-cinnamon flowers Leonel had planted for Aina's sake.

Soon, Leonel felt that he'd have to hop into battle again, so he chose to take the time to decompress. He also had to open the next Gate of his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor before he left, so he just wanted to organize his thoughts first.

Though he thought he preferred the smaller, more compact Segmented Cube. It was nice to be able to do this.

Leonel wasn't feeling particularly down about his loss to Amery. He didn't like to lose, but losing wasn't something that caused his confidence to waver in the slightest. In fact, Amery's threats had no impact on him, and Amery's ideology had long since been thrown from his mind.

Leonel didn't believe that there was anything in this world that didn't have an explanation, nothing that couldn't be broken down into nuts and bolts and analyzed piece by piece. The idea of 'listening' or 'feeling' a weapon was and always would be asinine to him.

Leonel felt that as long as he reached a high enough level, even Lineage Factors would be able to be taken apart and reconstructed by him. That, he was confident in. And, it was because of this confidence that he had allowed this insane idea of his to proliferate to the point he couldn't get it out of his head.

At this moment, Leonel felt that his Snowy Star Lineage Factor was quickly reaching the end of its rope. It was quite a funny thought to have considering he wasn't anywhere close to the Sixth Dimension, but it was a thought that he had nonetheless.

If he had to pinpoint the weakness of this Lineage Factor, it wasn't in the abilities themselves, but rather in the limitation of Snow Force. If Snow Force was swapped for a more powerful or potent Light Elemental Force, the Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor would instantly be comparable to many Seventh Dimensional Lineage Factors.

The question was… How?

Well, if Leonel was a sane, well put together individual, he might move on to a new idea right this moment. Messing with such a thing was beyond people, most would say…

Or was it?

Lineage Factors had to be birthed from somewhere, right? From what Leonel understood, they could be passed down from parents and in some rare cases, they could come from the future imprinting itself onto the past as well.

Leonel had just stepped into the Control level of his ability. He could now, theoretically, control his own body down to a cellular level. In addition to this, he had just gained the backing of the Phase Four Segmented Cube, allowing him to convert Force and form highly pure Force Crystals.

Force Crystals themselves were rare enough. But, Pure Force Crystals were rare to the point that even Force Crystal Mines seemed ubiquitous compared to them. And yet, Leonel now had the ability to exchange a price for them…

At the same time, Leonel had comprehension abilities that transcended the understanding of most, his mind putting even super computers to shame.

So, the question was, if Leonel could pick out the perfect Force to replace Snow Force… If he could find a Force that could replicate its nourishment of the mind, its great healing, and its supreme speed… Even surpassing it in all these aspects and maybe even granting the Snowy Star Owl abilities it had never had before…

Could he upgrade his own Lineage Factor?