Dimensional Descent

Leonel caught the Innate Node in a hand. Seeing how small it was, he couldn’t help but sigh. All of this was caused by a small thing barely the size of a thumb nail.

That was right, the Innate Node within Myghell looked like a piece of a gem one might not even notice by a roadside if it wasn’t for the blinding like it was giving off. It was completely unlike Leonel’s own which was so large it had taken over his entire kidney.

At a glance, Leonel could tell that while Myghell had been able to adapt, he hadn’t been able to do so perfectly.

For one, the Innate Node hadn’t grown along with him. Though Leonel wasn’t certain if it was meant to grow to the exaggerated size of his own, he was pretty sure that this was far too small.

Secondly, the aura that this Innate Node was giving off was only at the Fourth Dimension. Myghell was already a step away from the Sixth, and yet the Innate Node he had taken from Leonel had only crossed a single Dimensional barrier in all these years.

It was clear and obvious that the transplant wasn’t perfect and if it wasn’t for Myghell’s Ability, it likely wouldn’t have shown any progress at all. What was even more obvious was that the help Myghell had gained from this Innate Node to progress his Lineage Factor was far less than Leonel had originally assumed.

Realizing these things, how could Leonel not feel that things were practically comical at this point. All this commotion for this.

At the same time though, Leonel felt an apprehension creep up within his heart. His Innate Node was actually so powerful that proper comprehension of it had given Myghell so much strength…

Leonel suddenly coughed, his Divine Armor faded away as he fell backward.

’… I’m tired as hell…’

Leonel was asleep before he even hit the ground. He didn’t even register that having lost the support of his spear, Myghell had fallen at the same time.

**

Leonel’s eyes opened slowly, finding himself staring at a familiar ceiling. He had been stripped down to his boxers again, though, causing his lip to twitch.

’I really need to talk to mom about this…’

Leonel was in the process of shaking his head when he smelt a familiar scent lingering in the air. That fragrance of apple was undeniable, and it definitely wasn’t coming from him. At the same time, he was definitely alone in this room right now, so that could only mean…

’… Dammit.’

This time, nothing stopped Leonel from shaking his head.

’Hm?’ Leonel looked toward his hand to find that his Innate Node was actually still in his palm. Then again, there were probably very few people who could hold a Scarlet Star Force Innate Node and not be affected by it. Whoever took it out of him the first time definitely suffered greatly, it was a miracle that Myghell even survived.

Leonel raised his hand up above his head, taking a good look at the Innate Node. It didn’t seem as bright as it had before and even looked to be quite docile. It hummed with a steady rhythm as though it was feeling content and happy. Leonel didn’t know if that was an illusion, or if it was real, but it was definitely the feeling he got.

”Hey, old man. Is there any benefit to having two Innate Nodes?”

”Do you take me for an encyclopedia?”

Despite the discontent in Wise Star Order’s voice, he still didn’t take long to answer.

”Yes. That’s exactly what I take you for.”

”I’m going to really enjoy killing you one day.”

”Just answer the question.”

”How the hell would I know? Regrowing an Innate Node is supposed to be impossible and being born with an Innate Node at all is an extraordinarily rare event. The only examples I know of individuals being born with two were cases where they were born with completely different Innate Nodes. I’ve never heard of the same person being born with two of the same.”

”Oh? So there are people who’ve been born with two?”

”Yes, there are plenty of people born with far more talent than you, you arrogant little brat.”

”When did I ever say that I was the most talented person in the world? Sounds like you’re projecting, old man.”

Wise Star Order only snorted in response.

”I’ve heard of a child born to the Spirituals born with Nine. A few of them were common, but three of them were True State Elements on the same level as yours.”

”Didn’t you say Spirituals were born without bodies? How could they have Innate Nodes? Doesn’t that mean they just built a body with nine because they felt like it?”

”… I’m living with an idiot. Do you know anything about the body building process of the Spirituals? So why are you drawing conclusions so easily? Plus, do you have any idea of how finnicky True State Elements are? You can’t just take one because you feel like it.”

Leonel chuckled. He often asked and made a lot of low level mistakes around Wise Star Order. These were deductions he could easily make himself, but the easiest way to get this old man to talk about what he knows was like this. He called Leonel arrogant, but which of them truly was more so?

The old man probably wasn’t stupid enough to think that Leonel was so slow, but it could help in the long run regardless.

”So you’re saying if this person had been born a regular human, they would have had nine Innate Nodes regardless? That’s crazy. Does that mean he had 18 Nodes formed in the Third Dimension?”

”No, fool. It’s because they were born a Spiritual that they could have such talent in the Elements. A human would never… Wait, what kind of nonsense did you just say? 18 Nodes? Get me out of here, I can’t do this anymore. There’s only so far you should take this retardation act of yours.”

Leonel raised an eyebrow. ”I actually wasn’t trying to be stupid there. I have 10 Nodes.”

”You have 10 Nodes, so wh…” Wise Star Order’s voice trailed off. ”… What did you just say?”