After he completed his selections, Leonel turned a pair of pitiful pale green eyes toward Montez and finally got the right to use the pond again to clean himself. Unfortunately, though, it seemed his stats weren't influenced by it at all.
'Have the effects of dad's vomit brews ended so quickly?'
Leonel frowned. He found it hard to believe that this was the case. He downed those brews for 17 years without missing a single day. If he did the math of the sheer volume he had digested, he would feel a hard to ignore urge to gag.
After a moment, Leonel could only toss these thoughts to the back of his mind. His father never told him exactly what those vomit brews were for. For all he knew, the stat boosting effect was just a side product while its true purpose was more hidden.
'Maybe I'll find out more after I make it back home… Should I bring Aina to the Empire's gathering place first? Or should I take her home with me?'
Leonel wasn't a fool. Although he knew some truths behind how sinister the choices of the Empire had been, he also knew that trying to break free from them now would only mean death.
If technology was really going extinct, he might have chosen to sever ties now. However, the wrist watch proved that the Empire still had some hidden methods. Plus, who knew how many more families like Aina's there were and how many of them had sworn allegiance?
For now, Leonel had no choice but to swallow some grievances.
There was another possibility as well. Uncle Montez had mentioned that he could buy a ticket to another world in exchange for a Tier 9 Black reward. If worse came to worst, Leonel would look into this method.
Leonel shook his head and left the pool, feeling refreshed.
Now that he could finally see his skin again, he realized that it had become softer and more elastic, not to mention the fact he couldn't see his pores no matter how hard he stared. It was like he just came from his mother's womb.
It was a good feeling that left him smiling to himself.
After a bit, he had put his clothes back on. The shocking part, though, was that the rips in his sweat pants were completely healed. They looked like a new pair he was wearing for the first time.
Leonel realized then that this was an ability of his silver chain necklace. Not only could it make his clothes harder to tear, but it could repair tears that already occurred as well. He finally didn't have to walk around like a beggar anymore.
Sliding on his tight fitting compression shirt reward he had received from his first Zone, Leonel grinned.
Though he could put his metal box of darts in his bracelet, he chose to keep it by his side with the help of AIna's belt. It was more convenient this way.
"Uncle Montez, how much time do I have left?"
"Mm, since it was a TIer 7, you have about a day left I guess."
"Good."
Leonel's gaze sharpened. There was something he really wanted to do, and it could only be done here.
With a thought from his Internal Sight, Joan's golden polearm appeared in Leonel's hand. Leonel felt it was a bit unfortunate he hadn't had the time to take Nigelle's bow as well, but it couldn't be helped.
Montez swept a glance at the polearm, but he didn't remind Leonel that it wouldn't be able to be taken out of here. He was sure that Leonel knew of this already, or else he wouldn't be wasting his time studying it.
As expected, Leonel's ability had grown once again.
After forming his First Node, he grasped Dream World. This ability helped him to form his Second and Third Nodes with ease. After a few more days, forming his Fourth and even Fifth wouldn't be a problem at all. In fact, Leonel could tell that the time frame had shortened thanks to the Star formed in his mind.
Leonel's new ability couldn't be considered completely separate from Dream World. At most it was an extension. Leonel even had the faint feeling that most of his newly comprehended abilities would be like this. But, he didn't mind at all.
He called this new ability Dream Sculpting.
Dream Sculpting, making use of Leonel's ample spirit, could scan and create a replica of an object in Leonel's mind. It had to be said that Leonel's spirit was directly proportional to his Internal Sight. So, Leonel was essentially constructing a model of an object and building a copy of it in his mind.
Obviously, it was impossible to use this copy. It was simply an image in his memories. However, this memory had many uses.
For one, it was more robust than his other memories. Observing this memory would be no different from observing the true object. And, secondly, if this memory was pulled into his Dream World, he could use his simulation abilities to test out several things.
However, this was the true beauty of Dream Sculpting.
Normally, Leonel's simulations have barely above 70% accuracy. However, if coupled with Dream Sculpting, under the condition that all the tests are solely related to the sculpted object, the simulations he could run would exceed 99% accuracy!
There was only one bottleneck for this ability, and that was the object itself. Depending on the object's grade, it could be harder or easier to Dream Sculpt it. And, Joan's polearm just happened to be quite difficult.
It took Leonel over 23 hours to succeed. And by the end of it, he felt like all the energy in his body was drained. He even felt that his ability had gone dormant without any spirit to fuel it.
Luckily, he still had enough time to replenish himself by entering the pool once more. He came out with a massive grin on his face. Though he didn't know if the polearm's Dream Sculpt would be useful in the future, at least he had a proof of concept for now.
Leonel bid farewell to Montez with a satisfied smile on his face, happy to get the chance to see Aina again.
A light blinded Leonel for a moment, and when he could see again, his mood sank. He had almost forgotten the sorry state the world was in. Collapsed buildings and cracked sidewalks were still littered all around him.
However, his mood brightened again when he saw Aina's silhouette not far from him. But soon, even that was ruined.
"Another one, huh?" A male voice cut off Leonel's thoughts.
He had a bad habit of ignoring everyone else when he laid eyes on Aina, so he hadn't even noticed that there were three others here.
"The two of you are under arrest. This was designated as the region of an S-grade Zone. The two of you have entered without registration and without permission. Please do not resist, or you will only make this harder on yourselves.
"Place all of your contraband into this black bin and allow yourselves to be taken in. Your belongings will be confiscated to the proper authorities."
Leonel's smile faded, leaving an expressionless visage as his gaze met the equally dull expressions of the three military men.