Dimensional Descent

Originally, everyone always sent glances toward Leonel due to the gold embroidery on his robes making it obvious that he was a Holy Son. But now, everyone looked at him as though he was some kind of freak. 

No matter where he went in the library, the surrounding tens of meters would be completely cleared of people. It was simply impossible for them to comfortably study and read beneath his oppressive aura. 

It was one thing if that was all, but he was reading an obscene amount of books. He would always go to a new table empty handed, but in the next moment, one after another, he would pull massive texts from thin air and stack them several meters into the sky. Then, after he returned them all, he would move to a new section of the library and repeat the process again. 

Though all of this was weird, it was still manageable. But, what was truly ridiculous was his reading speed. Leonel seemed to flip through the pages of the books he chose as though he was using them as a fan rather than for reading material. 

Many thought that Leonel was only putting up a show of strength after this continued for a while, causing their initial impressions of the new Holy Son to take a dip. After all, even a Magus couldn’t read books so quickly, let alone an Apprentice Mage who wasn’t even familiar with the material to begin with. 

One had to remember that this was a Zone. It wasn’t a land where abilities had awakened. Aside from Leonel and the 11 others that entered with him, there shouldn’t be any others who had ’evolved’. So, it was impossible for them to make this connection. 

However, as time passed, those watching came to realize that if this was all a show… Leonel was a bit too committed. There were even instances of many who tried to strike up a conversation with him, including gorgeous female mages, yet he didn’t spare any of them the time of day. He continued reading as though he hadn’t noticed their presence. 

If this was something he was doing for attention… shouldn’t he accept the attention he earned?

Could it be that he was really reading that fast…?

The truth was that these people were right. Leonel really wasn’t reading. But, that wasn’t because he was putting up an act, but rather because he didn’t have to.

When one looks at the world through one’s eyes, it was possible to take in everything in one glance. However, if one wanted to remember in detail what was seen, it would then be necessary to consciously analyze everything. 

This was how reading worked too. Technically, as long as it was within one’s line of vision, it was possible to see the whole page at once, but it was obviously only possible to read one word at a time. 

However, if Leonel used Dream Sculpt, he could ’save’ this page into his memories in the blink of an eye. Like this, it would be just like he read the page, but much quicker. 

In addition, since there was nothing complicated about a page of words, Leonel didn’t have to spend hours or days like he had to in the past. Almost like he was taking a picture with his mind, everything would be saved in an instant. 

Quickly, the database of knowledge in Leonel’s mind grew at explosive rates. In just half a month, he had read through every single book at and below the Level Four. 

Leonel closed the last book and looked up with red eyes. His gaze was filled with a mixture of fatigue and a hidden piercing light. 

He finally understood what the difference between him and Three Star Magi and Three Star Grand Knights was. It all came back to the same thing time and time again: Crystallization. 

In the magic system Leonel was currently using, one he gained from [Dimensional Cleanse], there was no need for Crystallization. There was a very simple reason for this. Once one wanted to break free from the Third Dimension and reach the Fourth Dimension, one would begin sensing a higher level Force. 

There was a qualitative change between with each dividing Dimensional line. It was impossible for someone within the Third Dimension to defeat someone within the Fourth, and impossible for someone within the Fourth to defeat someone in the Fifth. 

Though it was possible for someone to jump power levels within a shared Dimension, doing so across Dimensions was impossible. This was a qualitative difference in strength. 

Think about it… Did you need to struggle to crumple a piece of paper? 

However, Camelot took a different approach, and this was Crystallization! One might not struggle to rip a single piece of paper, but what about two? Three? A hundred? A thousand?

Instead of leaping to a qualitative change in strength, they consolidated the strength they did have and evolved it with a quantitative change instead. 

This also explained why his supposedly Fifth Dimensional spirit was still so weak. How could it be considered true Fifth Dimensional Soul Force when it was formed with Third Dimensional Force? 

It was no wonder Elys and even Aliard had mistaken his spirit for being at the level of a Three Star Magus. In substance, his spirit was lacking in comparison to theirs. But, in potential, his far surpassed theirs. The average of the two opposing ideas landed him right in the middle…

It was only now Leonel realized how truly flawed his stat system was…

’It’s a shame. Though they take this approach, it has no use at the next level. All this hard work of theirs would have to be dispelled the moment they want to truly enter the Fourth Dimension…’

Leonel realized that this was only a case of short term benefits. Since Third Dimensional Force had to be dispelled in favor of Fourth Dimensional Force, any Crystallization one’s Third Dimensional Force underwent would be useless in the future. 

After a moment, an arc of electricity suddenly bolted through Leonel’s Dream World. Leonel knew what this was immediately. It was a phenomenon that occurred when his Dreamscape made a connection.

With Leonel’s every passing thought, these arcs of lightning would connect the various Dream Sculpts within his Dreamscape, almost like the real synapses of a brain. However, they were usually ignored by him unless… an arc of lightning had a particularly wide set of branches. 

The more branches an arc of lightning formed, the more ideas it was connecting, and thus the more complex the thought it was forming was. 

Leonel’s eyes shone. Just what idea had his Dreamscape stumbled onto?

Leonel began to meditate on the connected Dream Sculpts. After a few seconds, his eyes snapped open once more, burning with a fierce light. 

His previous thinking was too naive. Force had other uses aside from the power it output. For example, hadn’t Leonel’s physical stats improved with each Node he formed?

There was a limit to this once he reached the Ninth Node. However, what if he Crystallized his Force? Wouldn’t the benefits to his body be much greater?

Leonel looked at the central Dream Sculpt that hung between all the arcs of lightning. It was book by the title of ’Knights and Mages: The War of Ideologies’. 

Leonel suddenly saw a bright light at the end of a dark tunnel. All this time, he had been worried. After so long, all of his calculations concluded that his Tenth Node formation would end in failure.. However this… changed everything.