MENACE

Leonel stood before the cave, looking it up and down. He reached a hand forward, and as expected, he ran into a barrier. However, in doing so, he picked up just the slightest hint of something.

It was a simple detection Force Art. Well, simple to him. It seemed that rather than checking if he had Glaive Force, it instead directly checked his Domain Ring to see if it matched or if he even had a Domain Ring to begin with.

Leonel pulled his hand back and then touched the barrier again. Then he repeated. He must have done this at least a dozen times before he finally came to a stop.

'I got it.'

He closed his eyes for a moment, reaching his hand forward a few moments later; it passed right through as though the barrier wasn't even there.

Leonel smiled.

He didn't believe his Crafting was beyond that of a Complete World; he wasn't so arrogant. However, his level of understanding of Domain Rings was likely far beyond what these people likely assumed, and more importantly than that...

How much effort would they put into hiding their intentions when they thought them all to be country bumpkins?

Leonel strolled into the cave. He thought for a moment and then swapped out the primitive woman's spear for another wooden spear.

This one had a bone for a blade that looked quite roughly shaped. Leonel had never used it before, but it looked close enough to a glaive. It would serve his purposes.

Leonel felt a strong suppression pin him down, but in the end, he smiled. As expected, this suppression was designed to stifle Glaive Force, but Leonel didn't even have Glaive Force to stifle.

The pressure ended up passing right through him, only slowing his steps somewhat as it pressured his body instead.

In truth, the pressure wasn't designed to do this. Unfortunately, he was only in the Fifth Dimension now, so pressure designed for Seventh Dimensional existences just happened to have this passive effect on him. But it wasn't enough to slow him considerably.

He wanted to know, what was at the end?

Leonel made it to the end quite quickly. It turned out that this cave only existed to suppress and refine Glaive Force, likely in an attempt to purify it into True Sovereign Glaive Force.

It was an interesting concept, and Leonel's senses swept about as he took note of the Force Arts that were active in making it happen, but in the end, he felt that it was nothing special.

He felt that if this was a cave for Spear Force, he wouldn't have even a 1% shot at crossing that elusive threshold. You could only do so if you had an inkling of what that kernel of truth might be.

He threw the idea of using this to help Emna out to the back of his mind.

'Oh?'

Leonel stopped. At the end of the path, there was a podium, and upon it, there was a ring. He didn't need to think much to understand what it was; it was a Glaive Domain Ring.

His eyes narrowed. This must be the reward, a chance to absorb this Glaive Domain Ring into your own and multiply its strength.

Leonel had a small bit of familiarity with this process. After he had succeeded in placing first during his tribulation, his Spear Domain Ring gained a whole new section and the number of spears doubled. In addition, beyond the mountain, a place that once was a vast darkness, another graveyard of spears appeared.

This was apparently an opportunity to do the same. But once again, it felt... hollow, like he was missing something. © content.

After some hesitation, he picked up the ring and tossed it into the Segmented Cube.

'How good is your multi-tasking, Anastasia?'

He could practically hear her roll her eyes.

'I'm a World Spirit, my duty is to manage a world. If anything, you're not giving me nearly enough tasks.'

Leonel laughed. 'Your family, I can't just order you around as I please, right?'

'Don't try and sweet talk me, brat. I watched you grow up. I'm not some lady you can just sweep off her feet.'

Leonel laughed harder. 'I feel like there's something odd about these rings; their existence doesn't make sense. What can you tell me about them.'

'Well, if you had asked earlier, I could have told you that the rings are just part of a whole, of which there should be nine total.'

'And what happens when you gather nine?'

'Well, it should be able to create a quasi True Sovereign Aura, one that goes beyond what each individual ring gives. It should also give you a pretty much 50/50 chance of truly becoming a Sovereign as well.'

'But why? The why is lacking...'

Leonel didn't really say this to Anastasia; he was thinking it to himself. Something about this wasn't adding up.

These were not good people. Such an amazing treasure was definitely something they would have kept for themselves if they had the capability.

Leonel stepped out from the cave and found a group of beastmen looking down at the corpses. His eyes narrowed when he spotted one among them, or more accurately, when he spotted the ring on his finger.

Leonel understood. This person should be an Alpha, and these people had found this cave for him. He was a Domain Ring wielder suited for this place.

'An Alpha, huh?'

Leonel looked toward the young man. He had grey, leathery skin with muscles bulging out from every orifice. He was just two meters tall, a bit shorter than even Leonel, but he felt so bulky and large that it hardly mattered.

The most standout feature, though, was the sharp rhino horn that took the place of his nose. When he spotted Leonel, he let out a gruff, low grumble that superheated the air.

A glaive that looked like it was formed of magma and lava rock appeared in his rough hands, swinging down toward Leonel with menace.