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?

Though Leonel never fully explained exactly

if you don't mind."

stone 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

what felt the most uncomfortable for the group was the odd turn in the relationship between Aina 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 assignments no differently

sighed and thanked Aina as they passed by. In the end, Aina slowly lowered the slab, sealing them off

a decent ten by ten meter size. It gave them all

took up a bit more than half of the space, inviting the women of the group in. It was quite a convenient thing. Leonel had almost chosen a Tier 4 Black treasure of similar abilities — well, it would be known as a C-grade treasure by those of Earth — but he chose

pausing outside the tent. She glanced back toward Leonel with a

Leonel smiled bitterly to

who always 'protected' Aina. Despite Leonel's overall 'good guy' persona, she was even protective against him, shielding Aina from all the bad in the world. As a result, she had always been the most

maybe the person who most understood how Leonel was feeling

down cross legged, the metal container on his back clinking slightly against the stone.

the sleeping bags Yuri had given them. They

usually snorted when she saw him sitting on the cold stone floors every night, believing that his pride was overblown. But she

his own world. It was a weird state of mind being empty, yet completely alert at the same time. Everything within a fifty meter radius of his body

mine… I

his ability everyday. After he

problem with circulating [Dimensional Cleanse], though. Whenever he did, Invalids would sense their position far easier. During the first night, Leonel was forced to stop and sneak out silently in order to clear them

of his ability. This slowed his progress, but

that, Leonel locked down a new stat:

[Leonel Morales]

0.67 (+0.1); Agility: 0.75 (+0.1); Coordination: 0.99; Stamina:

measured by the limit of the

days, it hadn't budged a single inch. Or, more accurately, it had, but Leonel couldn't register it sharply enough to put a number to

other outstanding effects. Leonel's Reactions and Coordination had improved to 0.99. It was only now he felt that the barrier to 1.00 was exceptionally

also increased decently. Setting aside the boosts from his treasures, his speed had improved to 0.57 and his agility to 0.65.

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 next to no impact on his

no idea where these 'stat' increases were coming from. But his body seemed to be slowly improving over time at a

Uncle Montez was saying about Pseudo Fourth Dimensional constitutions? Maybe as a world evolves, its people do too. The closer Earth comes to the Fourth Dimension, the closer we all come to dropping that

the case… Why isn't anyone

flashed open. 'Something big

around him seemed to be soundly asleep already. Looking at the time, he should have been

some strength and

'B-grade…' Leonel sighed.

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 have had an impact on his 'stat'