Dimensional Descent

"Milan."

Hearing Leonel's voice, Milan reacted quickly. He took his tall F-grade tower shield and slammed it forward, ramming the C-grade Invalid backward.

Joel followed up, his F-grade pike piercing over Milan's shoulder as though the two were one. Just like that, another C-grade Invalid fell.

It had already been three days since they began following Leonel, but even Yuri who had been the only one who wanted to reject his leadership had her lips tightly sealed. Not to mention the fact a third of this group was made up of men who shared their lives with him on the football field for four years already, even if this wasn't the case, the results spoke for themselves.

They had fought tens of battles in just these three days, but not a single person had been injured. On top of this, they never met a group of Invalids they couldn't handle. The most dangerous situation they had come across was a group of ten D-grade Invalids, but even that seemed to roll off their shoulders like it was nothing.

Over time, the group gained more confidence and relaxed, their tense nerves loosening. Yet, they somehow didn't become complacent either. No, it wasn't a mistake. Joel, Milan and James always followed Leonel's orders to the finest detail. It was they who set the example for the rest of them.

Maybe it was only Yuri and the silent Aina who knew things shouldn't have been this easy. It wasn't a coincidence most of them only had F-grade treasures. The Zones they had entered were only of that level, so they hadn't earned any rewards that were better.

Despite only entering F-grade Sub-Dimensional Zones, just look at how many of them had died. Over half of them would never see their families again. But, somehow they were navigating seas of F to C-grade Invalids as though they were nothing? Since when had the Metamorphosis become such a joke?

For moment, Yuri had even believed that Leonel would thrust her into the front-line as revenge. But he actually hadn't done that either.

Looking toward Leonel, Yuri frowned. Leonel hadn't attacked a single time in these several days. But she was certain that the treasures on him were above the F-grade. And, she had learned through deductions of her own that he had actually woken up before Aina even though her Lady had never said a word about it.

Just what was going on?

Yuri had known Leonel for a long time. She knew he was intelligent. She was also quite fond of his personality. He was kind and respectful, the kind of man she wouldn't mind being with her Miss. The problem was that he was too weak.

But was he really weak? She didn't know anymore.

Her gaze landed on Leonel's crossed arms. She could see his fingers digging firmly into his own tricep every time another Invalid fell.

Leonel looked up into the sky. Seeing the sun setting, he made a decision.

"Let's stop for today."

The group was currently in the middle of what they had no choice but to call city ruins. This was the very advanced city that had once surrounded their third ranked Academy. But now, it was practically rubble.

After the Paradise Islands fell from the skies, many of them lay the tall skyscrapers to waste. Even those buildings that weren't directly impacted collapsed after the fierce earthquakes.

In order to find shelter for the night, the group had to dig through what was left of the buildings to see if they could find any basements that survived the collapse. Before, they were apprehensive. What would happen if they became trapped or worse, crushed to death?

Leonel never fully explained

don't mind." Leonel

Leonel pointed out and lifted it. It would never stop being weird seeing such a small girl lift such a massive load, but it was at the very least easier now than it had been in

and Leonel. They felt that in the past, Leonel would never ask Aina to do such menial work, nor would he speak to her so neutrally. He gave her commands and

Aina as they passed by. In the end, Aina slowly lowered

by ten meter size. It gave them

had almost chosen a Tier 4 Black treasure of similar abilities — well, it would

the tent. She glanced back toward

smiled bitterly to

guy' persona, she was even protective against him, shielding Aina from all the bad in the world. As a result, she

She was maybe the person who most understood how Leonel was

his back clinking slightly against the stone.

decided not to bother him, rolling out the sleeping bags Yuri had

well, but he had never used it. She usually snorted when she saw him sitting on the cold stone floors every night, believing that his pride was overblown. But she had no idea the truth was that Leonel had simply gotten used to sleeping this way after months in the Mayan temple. Of course, he couldn't

a weird state of mind being empty, yet completely alert at the same time. Everything within a fifty meter

what is this ability of mine… I

felt that he learned new facets of his ability everyday. After he started practicing [Dimensional Cleanse], new doors opened up

far easier. During the first night, Leonel was forced to stop and sneak out silently in order to clear

1% of his ability. This slowed his

Leonel locked down

[Leonel Morales]

0.72; Speed: 0.67 (+0.1); Agility: 0.75 (+0.1); Coordination: 0.99; Stamina: 0.78 (+0.05);

to use that weird energy. Unlike his other stats that were measured by the limit of the human body, Leonel set 1.00 as the energy density of a Tier 9 Black

himself in for 0.10. However, in three days, it hadn't budged a single inch. Or, more accurately, it had, but Leonel couldn't register it

effects. Leonel's Reactions and Coordination had improved to 0.99. It was only now he felt that the

and reactions had slowed to a grinding halt, his other 'stats' had also increased decently. Setting aside the boosts from his treasures, his speed had improved to

come from [Dimensional Cleanse]. He had picked that technique primarily because it increased his spirit. His spirit, by extension, increased his coordination and reactions. In addition, his coordination had a positive impact on his agility. But, spirit should have

had no idea where these 'stat' increases were coming from. But his body seemed to be slowly improving over time at a pace that was out of his control. And, whatever improvement it seemed to not appear in

constitutions? Maybe as a world evolves, its people do too. The closer Earth comes to the Fourth Dimension, the closer we all come to

the case… Why isn't

flashed open. 'Something

asleep already. Looking at the time, he should have been practicing [Dimensional Cleanse]

Leonel exerted some strength and

'B-grade…' Leonel sighed.

had taken out two nights ago were just a bunch of F-grade Invalids. Their boost to his 'stats' were so minuscule that Leonel knew they couldn't