Dimensional Descent

His father’s silver dictionary responded with the grading system only seen in the Cataclysm Zone, but it had still concluded that there was no relation? Leonel frowned for a moment before he remembered something. This silver dictionary was known for being a tricky mistress, unless he asked a hyper specific question, it tended to skirt the issue.

But when he thought about it, it made sense. At least, it made more sense to him now than it ever had before.

The silver dictionary probably didn’t store answers like a huge database would. Rather, if Leonel was correct, it deduced answers on the spot. The scanning function Leonel had taken advantage of to understand the missions of Zones wasn’t just an auxiliary function, it was the foundational function of the silver dictionary.

The only stored information within the silver dictionary were the voice messages and video messages left behind by his father that would either help him complete certain training modules, or activate when he asked a particular brand of question.

When Leonel had first reached this conclusion, he was in complete awe. This made the silver dictionary countless fold more complex than he had originally given it credit for. It was like it was built with a foundational understanding of the world, and then could deduce everything based on this foundational information... almost as though it was a kernel of the universe itself.

Knowing all of this, Leonel made his question more specific.

”These two items seem to have been forged using very similar techniques and their inner components resemble one another, why is that?”

To his surprise, though, Leonel didn’t receive the answer he was expecting even after all of this.

[Ping][These two treasures do seem to be built upon the same principles, but they are a product of Convergent Evolution. They are very similar, but entirely unrelated]

The shock in Leonel’s heart was even greater upon hearing this. The implications were almost too much to accept, he couldn’t help but grin.

Divergent Evolution was when a species branched into two, forming different traits and eventually becoming two novel species of their own. Of course, it didn’t have to be as exaggerated as that, it could also be as simple as polar bears gaining white fur while black bears gained black.

Convergent Evolution was the opposite. It was the process of two entirely independent species, unrelated to one another, gaining the same or very similar traits in order to combat the very same environmental factors. This could be any number of traits.

In this case, the silver dictionary seemed to be implying that his father had independently created this form of Crafting that was very much in line with what the Cataclysm Zone called their own. In that case, his father hadn’t necessarily been to the Cataclysm Zone before, but this only made his feat all the more astounding.

Even with these two items before him, Leonel couldn’t even begin to comprehend them, they were on an entirely different level, but his father had created it on his own.

”What form of Crafting is this?” Leonel asked.

[Ping][This form of Crafting is known as Simplistic Convergence by Father Overlord. It takes the rule that a Craft with more parts is more complex and reverses it, attempting to minimize the number of moving parts and creating a maze of layered blueprints that can allow a simple mechanism to be responsible for many actions at once...]

The silver dictionary continued to ramble, but the most important part was in the first.

Indeed, according to Leonel’s understanding, the more parts a Craft had, the higher level it tended to be. In fact, this was part of the difficulty of forming a Life Grade Blueprint. To have so many moving parts be of one mind and body was a tall task.

It was no wonder these inner mechanisms reminded Leonel so much of a watch.

On Earth, the mechanical watch had never been phased out despite the fact it was maybe the most primitive technology still alive aside from the wheel itself. Instead, watch makers took pride in making so-called in-house movements that were increasingly more complex and yet served just a single purpose: to move a second hand at a set and steady rhythm.

Some watches might include moon and star cycles, but they were ultimately all following the same fundamental principle.

Then it all hit Leonel at once. He wondered... did his father gain inspiration for this form of Crafting from Earth as well?

Now that Leonel thought about it, there were two things his father never took off. The first were his glasses and the second... was his watch. It was an old leather watch with an incredibly simple white face, it was thin and unassuming. But as expected, after seeing his father for the first time in so long, it was right there.

The shocking reality awakened Leonel and he felt enlightened, and yet confused at the same time. He realized that this level of Crafting was still impossibly far beyond him, there was simply nothing that he could do to understand this right now.

However, more carefully than ever, he stored the silver dictionary away after asking it all the questions he wanted to. Then, he called James forward.

”Oh mighty Emperor Leonel, thank you for calling thy servant. Your humble Knight is here to serve you.”

James bowed low, but in return he got a kick for his efforts.

”I’m sorry, Emperor! I’m sorry! Please forgive this humble servant!” James begged for forgiveness.

Leonel was exasperated. ”Alright, alright, I get it. I called you here for a reward, but it seems that you don’t want it, maybe I should just call someone else.”

James suddenly appeared by Leonel’s side. ”Leonel, ol buddy, ol pal, you wouldn’t do that to your boy, right? We were raised in the same crib practically! We peed in the same bed!”

”... I didn’t meet you until I was four years old.”

”Potato, tomato, now gimme,” James grinned, snatching the bronze disk.

Leonel laughed and shook his head, letting James take it.