844: High Hopes

High Hopes

Arnold blinked, showing the first hints of an expression: confusion. He wasn't sure what Leonel meant by that.  1

But, this only made sense. Even Leonel hadn't known about this. It could be said that he had randomly stumbled upon it out of luck. 

That day when he first learned about Universal Cycles and exited the Camelot Zone to speak to Uncle Montez, he had off handedly said something about applying Universe Force to everything from his spear to his bow to his movement techniques. He hadn't realized it then, but he had already planted a seed for what was to come. 

After stepping into the Dimensional Verse in earnest, though, Leonel had come to learn that his thinking was radical. In this part of the Dimensional Verse, at least, no one spoke of Universal Cycles outside of their use with Elements and Weapons. 

Due to this, Arnold's scope of comprehension had been unwittingly cut off by the ignorance of those around him, limiting his growth. If he grew too far, it might have even become impossible to reverse at all. 

In that case… Leonel knew exactly how Arnold should progress. 

Leonel brought out a new table from the Segmented Cube and helped Raj order more food before he cried too many tears. Then, he pressed a finger to Arnold's forehead.

Arnold's expression changed numerous times in the span of just a few seconds. He had never known that Universal Cycles could be comprehended in this way. If it was possible, the boost to his strength wouldn't be small. But, if he wanted to do this, he would have to give up his conception of The Meteor in order to take a step back and rebuild his Four Seasons conceptions. 

At the same time, though, Leonel learned something from Arnold as well. 

Leonel had never really been trying to progress from the Four Seasons Realm toward the Heavenly Body Realm. That said, he had always subconsciously believed that something was missing. What he hadn't known, though, was that what was missing was so blatantly in his face. 

Whenever others used Universal Force, their conceptualizations would cause phenomena to appear in the form of the blazing heat of Summer or the blistering cold of Winter, as two examples. But, whenever Leonel used his own… nothing happened. 

Leonel had previously thought that this was because he had transcended the need to do this, but now that he thought about it, that made no sense. If the true form of the Four Seasons Realm had nothing to do with the Four Seasons, then why did it even have such a name to begin with? 

It would be one thing if it was only known as such in this corner of the universe, but even his father's dictionary called it the Four Seasons Realm, and Uncle Montez did as well. Obviously, he was missing something important. 

Feeling the subtle use of Universal Force Arnold had and even how powerful his conceptualizations were left Leonel in awe. 

He realized then that his Universal Force use might have been more powerful than others, but it was ultimately still just a shell. He was at the very beginning of a Realm with endless depths and he hadn't even bothered to take a single step forward. How foolish… 

That fear of missing out on something important Leonel had formed two years ago suddenly came back in full force. He realized that he needed to be more diligent and conscientious. He couldn't allow such big holes in his comprehension to continue on for so long. 

Once Leonel removed his finger from Arnold's forehead, the latter suddenly smiled. 

"Huh? Am I seeing things?" Milan rubbed his head. "This block head knows how to smile?"

Arnold swept a gaze over toward Milan, clearly filled with silent disdain. 

"You want to go, meat for hands?!" 

Arnold once again didn't respond, ignoring Milan completely. 

It seems that it was inaccurate to say that Milan and Arnold had a rivalry similar to Franco and Gil. Milan had been losing for years and it seemed he would never turn it around. What kind of rivalry was that? 

Leonel chuckled and looked toward the final two, Drake and Franco. 

Drake had a top tier marksmanship ability. Unlike Double Shot, his own came with a homing ability. 

The Marksmanship Ability Index was split into multiple categories. Drake, though, seemed to gain the abilities from two, making him what was called a Pure Marksman. 

The categories were as follows for a Pure Marksman: Sharp, Lock, Curve, Homing, and Marksman. 

Sharp gave one a heightened sensitivity to the environment and how it might affect a shot. Lock allowed one to tag an enemy with stronger senses than what one would have in Sharp, giving one at this level a small predictive ability along with the prowess to not lose sight of an enemy within a certain range. 

Curve branched the senses of a marksman toward more telekinetic abilities. The difference here is that it relies on communication between the sensory Lock and the marksman. The deviation allowed was very small compared to the next level. 

Homing allows for far more freedom and a projectile from a marksman at this level can even follow an enemy through a weaving path for an extended period of time without losing power. 

Finally, there was Marksman. Unlike most Ability Indexes, this was not reserved for Savants, though its highest levels were. Marksman allowed near omniscient predictive abilities about what an enemy would do next and how they would react. It was eerily similar to Leonel's own Dream Simulation ability. 

At the highest level, reserved for Savants, they could practically see into the future. At the lowest, it was possible to see a few branching paths and their probabilities. 

The main difference between Leonel and someone at this level was that the latter would be completely reliant on their eyes, this would not extend to their Soul Force. 

At the moment, Drake was doing quite well and had stepped into the lowest levels of Homing within the Fifth Dimension. This was excellent for a Fourth Dimensional existence and Leonel had high hopes for him. 

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