Adrin trembled when he heard this question, looking toward Leonel with a wide gaze. Force Manipulation wasn't something widely spoken about, it was a secret even more closely held than the existences of the Emperor's Might and Northern Star Lineage Factors.
Of course, the reason for this was because those two Lineage Factors were considered taboos, and as such the legend of them was spread only for the sake of disparaging the families that had once used them. But even so, this was the reality.
Most beneath a certain standard only stumbled onto Force Manipulation through anecdotes and countless years of training. However, the true and systematic methods were only held in the hands of a very select few, and maybe only the Spirituals could boast having any sort of methods that was anywhere near complete.
Leonel's gaze narrowed when he saw Adrin's reaction.
In truth, he had guessed much of what Adrin was thinking of right now, and there was a very simple reason for that. In the Cataclysm Zone, he had seen all sorts of treasures that could be exchanged for, even to the point of laying eyes on the Emperor's Might Golden Tablet, but not once had he seen anything even remotely refer to Force Manipulation.
On the one hand, it was possible that the Zone was just incomplete. It was a Zone, after all, so it was possible that it wasn't a supremely perfect representation of reality. With something as hard to emulate as Force Manipulation, it made sense if it wasn't all that easy for it to be replicated. If Zones relied on Dream Force to build everything, it would eventually have a limit.
It had to be remembered that Dream Force was a Force itself, obviously. It was one thing to emulate other Forces at lower resolutions or weaker states, but if it was tasked with emulating other Forces at their very best, which is exactly what Force Manipulation represented, it would no doubt reach a bottleneck it couldn't pass through, a bottleneck that would only become more stringent the more powerful the Force was.
This explanation had been good enough for Leonel to accept back then, good enough that it didn't bother him too much. However, there had always been a second explanation lingering in the back of his mind… And that was that Force Manipulation was a secret.
While it was impossible to stop geniuses from stumbling onto methods to better control their Force, so long as there was a tacit suppression of information about such methods generally speaking, disallowing the sharing of such methods, it would be fairly easy to suppress.
Leonel had always had a theory brewing in mind, one that he only confirmed further as he gained more split minds.
The difference between humans and apes of Third Dimensional Earth were only partial percentages of DNA. If you dropped an ape in the middle of a forest, and did the same with a human, their difference in intelligence wouldn't be meaningful enough that their quality of life would be drastically different.
What truly separated humans was the ability to communicate. Thanks to this evolution, humans were able to stack their small advantage in intelligence through the generations. With each small advancement and individual made, large numbers of the race benefited, until eventually humans pulled so far ahead of animals that they painted the illusion that they were infinitely more intelligent.
When you take that advantage, and you suffocate it, what would happen?
The result would be what was seen with Force Manipulation. You would have sporadic geniuses here and there, but with no ability to communicate and share insights, all advancement would stall with the end of said genius's life and then the next genius would have to start all over.
It was akin to Isaac Newton never sharing his invention of calculus and everyone having to deduce it on their own. Imagine a world where instead of calculus having been an annoying middle to high school level subject, it was instead a thesis one aspired to. Têxt belongs to .
The difference was akin to night and day.
The question, then, was why… But that answer was even more obvious.
Force Manipulation was force multiplier, not in the sense of energy, but rather a general sense. The only way for those born with weaker talent to catch up to those with stronger talent was through Force Manipulation.
With the selfishness of the Four Great Families, how could they possibly allow those beneath them to have a chance to rise up?
The cobra demon that Leonel had faced was the perfect example. He had been an exceptionally weak demon to start, and the Forces he used weren't particularly impressive either, but he was so powerful that Leonel, even given all his talent, couldn't last even a single exchange against him and had to be eaten alive just to stand a chance.
This was what Force Manipulation did.
One's raw talent was almost entirely decided by their bloodline and lineage, it was something that could be easily controlled and assessed. While Ability Indexes were a potential variable, it was likewise difficult to maximize them without Force Manipulation and could have their effects dampened as a result.
The obsession the Four Great Families had over maintaining their lineage and purity was clear and obvious, and now there seemed to be a more tangible reason why.
The trouble was that Force Manipulation relied on inspiration and intelligence, two things that were far more difficult to control for. Even for families at this level, accounting for the complexity of the human brain was almost impossible.
Suddenly, Leonel's gaze flickered as a spark flew in his Dreamscape. He suddenly remembered how cheap the Dream Force items were in the treasure exchange… could that be a coincidence?
If there was one variable that perfectly correlated with intelligence, it was Dream Force affinity…. Could there be a power that was attempting to undermine the Four Great Families through the use of Dream Force?
Leonel's finger tapped at his knee as he fell into deep thought. Things were rarely ever so simple, it would be foolish to draw such a conclusion now. With that thought, he looked up.
"You clearly know something, so let's not waste time, okay? Tell me what you know."