Dimensional Descent

Leonel didn’t respond, looking at the blue runed Rapax deeply.

“Third purchaser?” He asked.

“You don’t need to try to hide it. My race is a bit simpleminded, but we aren’t stupid. I can clearly see what sort you are.”

Leonel’s lip curled, and his body form changed. He grew ten inches and his features smoothed out, becoming more handsome. Not that it made a difference to the Rapax. To them, his change might as well have been a fox changing the tinge of their fur a bit. The Rapax were probably the only humanoid Race not obsessed with the actual human form. In a lot of ways, they were far more like beasts than they were like humanoids.

“No, you don’t know what sort I am.”

“Then why did you just expose yourself?”

“Because I felt like it. If you really knew something, it wouldn’t take a kid’s slip up to get you to question me.”

The young Rapax blushed. Well, his runes lit up a bit and flickered as he turned away. But same difference.

“That’s not a really good enough reason.” The blue runed Rapax replied, sending a glance at the young Rapax. He had never seen Shadowclaw react like this to anything. “How do you know Shadowclaw?”

“I don’t,” Leonel shrugged.

“Is there a need to lie at this point?” The blue runed Rapax felt a bit annoyed by Leonel’s condor at this point. Ultimately, he was in the Seventh Dimension. In fact, he was in Tier 7, the higher stratosphere of the Dimension. Leonel, on the other hand, was just in the Fifth Dimension.

In the Rapax culture, strength was respected above all, but Leonel had yet to do anything that made the blue runed Rapax respect him to that level. As far as he was concerned, the people of his Incomplete World were ants.

In line with that, from start to end, he didn’t even look at Xenothrall. And by the same extension, Xenothrall kept his head lowered in deference to his strength.

This was how things worked, but Leonel didn’t seem to understand that.

“It’s not like that!” Shadowclaw hurriedly interjected. “When I was young, my egg was targeted by a lot of people. Leonel saved me.”

The blue runed Rapax blinked in surprise, not expecting this. He had some understanding of Shadowclaw’s situation and talent. And because the Rapax were the only humanoid Race that incubated in eggs, he likewise understood how valuable that egg would have been.

He had heard Leonel’s previous speech, and he thought that it was mostly nonsense to drive a wedge between the Rapax and Sea Gods, but was he not lying?

“Let’s get to the point, shall we?” Leonel smiled. “You clearly aren’t here because you need the world itself. So why not tell me what you’re after and then we can see if we can’t work together?”

The blue runed Rapax’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know that?”

“Because you wouldn’t be so cordial with me otherwise. I also doubt that you would be colluding with the Sea Gods, either.”

After learning that the Rapax of the Complete Worlds were involved in this, Leonel realized that he could deduce many things. After seeing the blue runed Rapax’s character, he was even more certain.

The Rapax were a warrior race. If their goal was to take over the world, then they would never team up with another. It would be seen as beneath them to team up on a single party.

That meant that to the Rapax, their goal wasn’t the same as the Sea Gods at all. Only that way would their honor be intact.

The other, more tangible explanation was that it would have been foolish of the Rapax to purchase this world’s information otherwise. This was because they were a Mortal Race.

It had to be remembered that Leonel pretty much dismissed the idea of a Mortal Race purchasing this world because it would take far too many resources. The risk wouldn’t be worth it to them, especially when they couldn’t guarantee the outcome.

For the Rapax to purchase this information anyway, after there was already a purchaser before them, could only mean that their goal wouldn’t clash with the Barbarians, and they had a method of ensuring that they could get in and out unscathed.

The final nail in the coffin was, obviously, that they were so cordial with Leonel.

Though part of that could be because of Shadowclaw, it wasn’t enough when the wellbeing of an entire Race of people was at stake.

The blue runed Rapax remained silent for a long while.

Leonel’s smile didn’t fade as he extended a hand.

“How about we introduce ourselves first, then? My name is Leonel Morales. What’s yours?”

The blue runed Rapax looked at the hand and eventually extended one of his own. Barbed in sharp blade-like claws, it latched onto Leonel’s. But not an ounce of blood was shed.

BANG!

The air around their hands exploded, and ripples spread out in all directions. Xenothrall was forced several steps back, his body barely stabilizing when he was already over a hundred meters away.

“…”

The blue runed Rapax was stunned. He had expected to at least slice into Leonel’s hand, but nothing of the sort happened.

“My name is Dreadmaw!” His voice boomed.

He finally seemed to relax. In a twist of irony, when Leonel displayed his strength, he felt more instead of less at ease.

He retracted his hand and gave Shadowclaw a glance.

“We came here because of a disturbance. Some of our plans have to be accelerated because we need to be prepared for the Idol Battlefield. It is the most important ritual of our race and we have saved for generations for this moment. This is only our first step.

“Somewhere in this Incomplete World, there is an anomaly. It is a mutated Sub-Dimensional Zone that we’ve decided is very important for Shadowclaw’s growth. Unfortunately, we do not know exactly where it is…”

As Dreadmaw continued to speak, Leonel was truly speechless.

This Rapax Race… weren’t they a little too trusting and simpleminded?