Dimensional Descent

"Haha! Boy, you sure are an eager one. How many times do you want to lose?"

Heckle laughed uproariously as Leonel suffered another punch to the jaw. The latter felt his world spin as he was forced to take several steps back. It was only after he shook his head multiple times that he finally recovered.

It had already been a week since Leonel had come to this world. According to the dictionary, this Zone had an even greater time dilation than the Joan Zone at 1:50. This meant that about a year needed to pass here for a week to pass in the outside world. Apparently, Mythological Zones tended to have the largest time dilations compared to other Zones of a similar rank.

At the moment, the moon hung high in the skies and they had set up camp for the night. A large fire sent billowing smoke upward at the center of an arrangement of tent.

Leonel was sparring with Heckle once again. In fact, this wasn't just the second time. Leonel had already lost count.

After losing the first time, he had been fascinated by the man's skill. He felt he was learning quite a lot though he continued to lose.

The journey to their destination was a bit of a trial as well. The wilderness wasn't safe by any means. Setting aside bandits and rogues, just the wild beasts were truly troublesome to deal with. Much like this people of this Zone, the beasts were also more powerful than they should be. So, this wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination.

So, it wasn't surprising that the other recruits were dead tired. Leonel was the only one who would use such valuable rest time to torture himself some more.

How could they know that this so-called trial was nothing more than a joke to Leonel?

"Again."

Leonel wiped the blood from his lips. Of course, if he didn't want to be hurt, he only had to activate his Metal Synergy Runes. But, what would be the point of that?

He brandished his fists once more. This time, it was clear that his stance was much more refined. His right fist hung by his chin, allowing his left to take the lead. He narrowed the target Heckle had to attack by extending his left foot and rolling his shoulder.

In a flash, he took a step forward, sending two jabs in quick succession.

Heckle smiled, entering a similar stance as though mirroring Leonel perfectly. It was rare to find someone so interested in his boxing style. Usually, these brats only wanted to pick up a sword or spear as quickly as possible.

more so just wanted to win. He found trying to defeat Heckle while keeping a cap on his stats was nearly

Clone ability. But, he was spending all his time at night calculating for the formation of his Ninth and Tenth Node, he wouldn't spend it

He was still making

the range of Leonel's jabs. He followed up quickly, wanting to take advantage

few days. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward as Heckle tried to sweep to his left side. With a single pivot of his hips,

seems your footwork got a bit better. That's right, always stay

of movement. Around the fire, the jeers of

the kid's gonna beat

gonna let

his men, not minding as all. He felt quite

always be those who were gloomy. The youths of the town Barony had gotten tired of hearing praise for Leonel over these few days. But, they still had to admit

"Oof…"

suffered a fist to his chest and fell to the ground, feeling that the air had been knocked out of him once again. He couldn't help but sigh, it seemed

tonight pretty boy brat. If go any longer, you

was quite helpless toward this nickname. He had managed to use an ink sack from the octopus beast's body to dye his hair a deep black. Plus, with his new leather armor, he looked every bit the part of a

ink. So, he had to reapply it everyday.

"Thanks for the help Captain

skill…' The Barony youths looked

…

that day, around noon, they finally saw massive castle walls in the distance. In fact, with his sight, Leonel could see five sets of walls, each getting progressively taller until they all pointed toward

at least 50 kilometers from end to end,

such a thing. Instead, they were taken to a place connected by dusty roads. These roads all led to an open space where numerous

attention seemed focus on a large tent

At that moment, the flap of the tent was slowly raised, causing the open space

of the youths ratcheted up several levels. It was as though they were all meeting