Dimensional Descent

It was a story by a particular great human historian, one that had written several books on the topic. In fact, many of the books that Leonel had read that told tales of those heroes and heroines were written by this man. This should have made Leonel take him less seriously. But even in a pile of trash, there was still some treasure to be gained by someone at some point.

The interesting thing about this particular book was that it talked of both a savior and the Cloud Race’s own role in their demise. The way the story was woven made Leonel realize something quite profound.

Someone had definitely interfered.

But who? And why?

And how could they have taken part in this for so long?

What exactly was the purpose of crushing the Cloud Race and allowing the Human Race to survive and thrive in their stead?

When Leonel had this thought, he couldn’t help but recall the Oryx.

The Oryx definitely had an odd origin as well. They had no business being a main Race of this world. Their populations, when they appeared in other Incomplete Worlds, were usually small and unassuming.

It didn’t really make much sense that they would suddenly explode out in a boom like this.

And by extension, the Sea Gods were the same. Leonel wouldn’t be surprised if there were small pockets of Sea Gods in other Incomplete Worlds as well. He had just never seen them in the Dimensional Verse.

That made him wonder. Would he be able to find information about the sudden rise of the Oryx and their savior as well?

Unsurprisingly, it took not even a few days for Leonel to find exactly that.

As it turned out, the Oryx did start as a small Race. They couldn’t expand, not because of their talent, but because their fertility rates were too low.

Then, generations ago, much like the humans, there was a sudden change that allowed them to explode forth with maximal strength.

Was it a coincidence?

‘Someone has been interfering in this Incomplete World for a very long time. Is it a fourth person, or…’

Leonel thought about what he would do if he had been in this person’s position.

They had been setting things up in this Incomplete World for generations, and now information about its location was suddenly public information…

Well, if it was Leonel, there would really only be two options.

The first was more aggressive, and that was to buy one of the spots as a deterrence, marking your territory and telling others to not dare to make a move.

The second was more conservative, but it had a high upside as well. And that was to say and do absolutely nothing, getting ready to spring a trap on anyone who bought it.

However, this second option could be tossed away after the second person bought.

This was because after two people decided to take the plunge, they would already be wary against one another. It was difficult in that case for any surprise attacks to work at that point.

In that case, it would be best to be the third to buy, to act a deterrence for anyone who might be fourth.

It was highly unlikely that upon seeing three plunge into these waters that a fourth person would choose to make the same decision.

However, wasn’t Leonel the third person to buy?

That meant that whoever this was had taken the first option, and they were the very first to buy.

And this tactic of aggression… happened to be very in line with the character of the Barbarian Race.

That said, Leonel was only about 20% confident in the fact that the original owners of this Incomplete World were members of the Barbarians.

The reason for this was because, as he had said before, the Barbarian Race wasn’t one of Crafters. Something like curating Races, curating their improvement, and…

A flash of lightning ripped through Leonel’s Dreamscape, and he froze.

He stood up, his gaze flickering with lights.

That was right. How could he neglect that point? The existence of Apex… wasn’t it the biggest indicator?

The Barbarian Race was almost certainly the Race that had been here for the longest time, which meant that they were also the first to buy.

The question, then, was… who was the second?

It had to be a Race of people confident enough in their abilities to target this location even when someone else had already bought this information.

Leonel had already partially understood before, but this almost certainly meant that they had to be a Demi-God Race or greater.

And…

Leonel’s gaze turned toward the Rapax Domain.

… They were almost certainly reining in control of the Rapax Race right this moment.

Leonel might not know who they were, but he knew that he would find out if he stepped into the Rapax Race.

It was time to find out.

…

Just days after entering the Oryx Race, Leonel left once again and entered the Rapax Domain.

He didn’t try to disguise himself, remaining as a human. The only difference was that his hair had returned to its original brown to dirty blond color, and his eyes were once again a hazel.

He softened some of his features and made himself a bit chubbier. He also lowered his height of almost 6’10” to just barely 6′ tall.

With the gruff beast skins he wore, he looked like a war-torn warrior.

The reason he had made this choice was because of the conversation he had had with the first Oryx he met in this place. Thanks to that, he knew that humans had been fleeing to Oryx territory for a long time, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t fleeing to Rapax territory as well. It was just less frequent.

The Rapax were crueler in terms of culture, so they were avoided.

But that was exactly why Leonel picked his current appearance.

This was the perfect disguise for his goals.