Tier 9

It took Leonel several days before he could feel something outside a perpetual cycle of pain. Even the soothing effect of his Cleansing Water only made the torture worse because it continued to remind him of what it felt like to not experience heartrending pain day in and day out.

When it finally came to a stop, Leonel's body felt so weak that he directly fell asleep again, unable to move. He didn't know that he had another close shave with death, nor did he know about Anarchic Force. All he knew was that he needed sleep… And hopefully food when he woke up.

…

Leonel didn't feel particularly good when his eyes finally opened once more. It felt like a cross between him having slept for too long and yet somehow not enough. His head was foggy and his body felt as though it had been put through hours of torture. Though… That was exactly what had happened.

'… I feel like crap.'

Leonel shook his head, his eyes taking much longer to adjust to the light than it should have.

He realized he was naked, but he was far too lazy to do anything about it. Just moving his limbs around make him feel as though he had torn every muscle fiber in his body. For the first time in a while, he didn't even feel immediately hungry either.

After so long suppressing himself, this was an inevitable reality Leonel was forced to face. It was as though he had let a wound scab over, but had now picked it clean once again to allow it to heal properly.

Despite this, though, Leonel felt an overwhelming power rushing through his veins. It took him a while to register it because of how crappy he felt. But, once he did, he suddenly couldn't take his mind off of it, it had practically consumed him.

'This much…?'

To Leonel's surprise, the largest change wasn't even to his Force and Force Nodes. Rather, it was to his Metal Body and Metal Synergy Lineage Factor.

What Leonel hadn't realized was that his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor was like a separate organ system all to its own as well. The Runes that grew across his body could be considered to be manifestations of said organ system. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

However, this organ system was special in that it could be activated and deactivated. While in its deactivated state, it was much weaker and as such, Leonel's body was far more susceptible to harm than it would be otherwise. This was why Leonel's defenses were so much greater when his Bronze Runes were visible.

What Leonel had never considered was the mechanism behind this.

When one thought about it, didn't Leonel's defenses come from his Metal Body? Since that was a technique he trained in, why did it matter whether his Bronze Runes were activated or not?

The answer to that question lied in the method by which the Metal Synergy Lineage Factor circumvented many of the weaknesses that usually came with defense Lineage Factors like heavy weight, slow speed, and low flexibility.

The Bronze Runes were an amplification measure that relied on Force to synergize with Leonel's Metal Body and bring out its true strength while not hampering him as much as other Lineage Factors would.

To make something that was extraordinarily complex, simple… Leonel's Bronze Runes needed his Nodal Organ System to display their full potential!

Why was it that the Morales Clan elders had freaked out when Leonel tried to Awaken his Metal Synergy Lineage Factor before forming all nine of his Nodes? It was precisely because this foundation was extraordinarily important toward setting a wielder of the Metal Synergy Lineage Factor up for success.

Leonel raised his hand to his face.

A slight discomfort and a bloated feeling coursed through him as he activated his Bronze Runes on it. And, after just a moment of observation, he sucked in a cold breath.

'My Metal Body now with my Bronze Runes deactivated is about as strong as it was before with Runes. And now, with my Bronze Runes activated in full force, my defenses are three to five times greater than they had been before.'

If before Leonel could match up to lower tier and lower quality Fifth Dimension weapons in hardness with his Bronze Runes activated, now it wouldn't be guaranteed that even a Quasi Sixth Dimensional blade could harm him.

'… Wow…'

Leonel had always been underwhelmed by his Tier 9 Metal Body. He had used the Silver Tablet to accelerate his progress toward it, but he never felt the sort of invincibility it should have. People seemed to be able to harm him far too easily and the gap between him and Myghell still felt difficult to bridge.

Leonel had dismissed this odd feeling of his because he was used to his Metal Body being weaker than normal. Back when he was in the Third Dimension, his Fourth Dimensional Metal Body was also lacking. So, he had just assumed that it was because his Dimension Tier was lagging behind it once again.

He didn't realize until now that he was shooting himself in the foot. The Metal Synergy Lineage Factor in conduction with the technique represented the strongest defensive Lineage Factor in the whole of the Human Domain. There was no other that came even close. The Morales were untouchable in this aspect.

With a Tier 9 Metal Body and his Bronze Runes activated, considering the fact Leonel had opened all Nine Nested Doorways of the Fifth Dimension, harming him should have been as extraordinarily difficult task.

To explain things as simply as possible… To the current Leonel, unless you could display Sixth Dimensional strength, you should forget about leaving even the slightest mark on his skin so long as his Bronze Runes were activated. It was as simple as that.

Leonel tried to take a deep breath but his heart and lungs protested almost immediately. He settled for more shallow breathing, his eyes looking toward empty space.

Somehow, this only felt like the tip of the iceberg. Just what else had he missed out on?

[Just two today, everyone... *sprints away*]