Dimensional Descent

‘Interesting…’ Leonel thought.

The Morales obviously had their own ways of teaching forging, but Leonel didn’t believe that this was one of them. This should be something that Ramon had come up with on his own.

From Leonel’s understanding, in their generation, Ramon’s talent in forging was only beneath his own. And even then, he could close the gap much more if he had had the training of Leonel’s father.

However, unlike Eamon, he still had much less room to grow. After all, Eamon was self-taught, but even if Ramon’s teachings weren’t as good as Leonel’s own, he still had the Morales family.

The issue was, obviously, that the standard of the Morales family was beneath even the Human Bubbles, let alone the rest of Existence.

Leonel watched silently and didn’t interrupt Rowan. He continued to hammer away at what looked like the tip of a blade, a spear blade to be most accurate.

It was glowing a fiery red beneath the heat, and with each strike, incremental changes would be made.

Leonel couldn’t help but recall the Barbarian Race youth. Was this part of what Rowan was trying to tap into?

Rowan wasn’t ignoring Leonel. Instead, he truly seemed so engrossed that he had forgotten everything else. From the raise of the hammer, to the swift downward stroke, to the recalibration for the next blow, it was all perfect.

Rowan suddenly picked up the blade with a pair of tongs and rushed it to a tempering station, dipping it in and taking it out. He squinted, looking for warps in the blade.

After a while, he shook his head and tossed the blade away. It was only then that Leonel noticed a scrap pile filled with seemingly identical blades.

Rowan turned to return to his cabin, maybe for a short rest, but when he saw Leonel he was startled for a moment before nodding in greeting.

As per usual, the young man was quiet and reserved.

“What are you trying to accomplish?” Leonel asked.

At first, Rowan thought that Leonel wanted to question his methods and he was a little bit peeved. However, seeing the patience in Leonel’s eyes, Rowan realized that he didn’t mean it like that and felt a bit embarrassed.

These days, he was much too sensitive.

He didn’t interact with very many people anymore, and he didn’t feel like it was necessary to either. After losing his wife, it felt like the truest waste of time to interact with the world.

What would he gain from it?

But that didn’t mean that he felt that snapping at others was the right thing to do. Hadn’t Leonel lost people as well? He had watched his own father die before him.

“I… lack talent in combat. I am trying a new method,” Rowan said softly.

Leonel could tell that Rowan didn’t really want to talk. He was just trying to be polite by answering his question, but even then he had only answered with the shortest phrases he could, not really wanting to get into it.

Even so, Leonel nodded, seemingly understanding. He went to the scrap pile and picked up the recently finished blade.

“Wait, it’s-“

Leonel’s fingers didn’t seem to notice. There wasn’t even the slightest sizzle.

Although the blade had just been dipped in water, it was still incredibly hot. These were temperatures scaled to the Seventh Dimension, so it could be imagined how terrible they were. If this blade was placed on Third Dimensional Earth, it would have triggered a drought, in the worst case, it would have burned through the entire atmosphere and left them vulnerable to the elements of the universe.

Yet, Leonel picked it up as though it was just another bit of cool metal.

“I see. You’re trying to understand the way of the spear in a completely different way.”

Rowan’s eyes widened in shock.

He assumed that Leonel would think he was just trying to get some physical labor in, but to think that he would see through him so thoroughly.

“Crafting spears is a good method of understanding the. Here,” Leonel took off his Spear Domain Ring and tossed it to Rowan. “Whenever you can construct a spear without it being destroyed by this ring, you know that you would have taken the first step.”

Leonel had long since been keeping the Spear Domain Ring out of pure habit. In practice, it was now completely worthless to him. In fact, he had been having some thoughts about improving it…

But he was saving it for the construction of his Sixth Dimensional Divine Armor.

Rowan caught the ring, his eyes sparkling.

Leonel ignored him for a moment, observing the spear blade for a long while in silence. Rowan was actually already close, but Leonel realized the reason he had yet to take that final step was actually because he was trying to accomplish something far greater.

Each one of these spear blades was made from a slightly different material, but Rowan was trying to hammer them all the same way.

This path was incredibly profound. He was trying to find his own true spear… if he succeeded, he would become a Spear Sovereign without a doubt, and one that was even more powerful than Leonel’s own.

Leonel hadn’t put nearly as much thought into his path of the Spear, but Rowan had given him inspiration.

Essentially, Rowan was picking slightly different materials every time and trying to construct the exact same spear…

Didn’t this sound familiar?

Rather than relying on the materials to dictate the product, he was forcing the materials to conform…

Wasn’t this the Self Path?

Of course, it was precisely because he was so ambitious that he couldn’t take that step. But it was admirable nonetheless.

He felt his combat talent was lacking, so he was using what he was talented in to improve in other areas.

‘All roads lead to Rome,’ Leonel thought silently. Suddenly, he could feel his Forces being elevated by a mysterious force, almost as though they all wanted to break through at once.