[BONUS] WISDOM

[Bonus chappy thanks to Douglas Bell <3 (1/1)]

Leonel was having a great time. Honestly speaking, he would have much rather punched them all through their faces, he wouldn't even have minded if his knuckles exited out through the back of their skulls, but he wasn't strong enough for that yet.

In that case, he would just have to settle for making them spit up blood in anger.

Of course, he could tell that the real reason Anselma spat up blood was because of her internal injuries, but who cared? Minor details, minor details.

"Anastasia, find us a relatively safe place. I need to sleep for like a decade."

A snort came back as a reply, leaving Leonel without the words. How were they still mad at him?

Back then, he really didn't have much of a choice. He was enraged about the matter too, that was why he had looked so angry when he handed the letter to Aina. Although he knew that he would never let anything happen to Aina, just the idea pissed him off greatly. Honestly speaking, had it not been for his breakthrough in Vital Star Force, the thought would have filled him with too much fury to even execute. By then, it would have been a much worse ordeal to even make it out of there alive.

Simply put, his best chance at dealing with these Ninth Dimensional powerhouses wasn't to outsmart them, and it also wasn't to overpower them. Both were far too difficult. His best chance was to prey on the one thing they couldn't change: the fact they were human.

They had emotions, they had faults and flaws, they had relationships, both good and bad. This was what he had to exploit.

With Mo''Lexi, he had seen that she didn't really like Aina because of assumptions she made. He and Aina were as close as could be, and yet from an outsider's perspective, it looked as though Aina was taking advantage of Leonel.

For whatever reason, this really seemed to get under Mo''Lexi's skin, so that made it a flaw that was easily exploitable. It was her achilles heel.

For Vivak, his flaws were more obvious. He was being stretched thin in too many places and he was trying to play both sides. He had the human alliance to worry about on one hand, and on the other he was considering the benefits of his own family. Better yet, he was a man comfortable with himself, and he was more than willing to delegate out tasks that most would have completed on their own-underneath that lay a thin veneer of insecurity.

Anselma was also easily readable. She was an arrogant, vindictive woman. Leonel didn't even need to interact with her personally to know that. He only needed to see what happened with Aina's mother to know.

He didn't know the relationship between Anselma and Aina's father, or even how a Sixth Dimensional expert like him-last Leonel met him anyway-could have a relationship at all with that Ninth Dimensional witch, but this information was enough for him to understand her thoroughly.

This woman didn't even let a mortal, who didn't even understand what Force was, like Aina's mother go. How could she possibly consider letting Leonel go?

There was Anselma who was obsessed with Leonel and Vivak who was used to delegating tasks to others.

Anselma had been too consumed with seeing the other powerhouses so that she could finally put some pressure on Vivak, so she didn't even consider the optics of the situation.

Vivak was eager to pull the other overlords in to help him out and deal with Leonel, so he didn't even stop Anselma from coming and was in too much of a rush to let them in.

This culminated in Mo''Lexi and Clarence's wariness, which caused them to explosively retreat from a "bomb" that wasn't even a threat to them.

Leonel realized that in the past he might have been smart, but he was lacking in wisdom. He did well in outsmarting people, but rarely did he take into strong consideration the kind of character that person had. If he had learned to do this long ago, many of his battles might very well have been won with much greater ease.

The suppression of his Scarlet Star Force and the elevation of his Vital Star Force made him realize just how much character and personality played a role in how a person acted, and this gave him the inspiration he needed to survive that sure death scenario.

Now, he was on a completely different level.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Please forgive me, I won't do that again. I promise." Leonel pleaded.

This wasn't something he learned recently. Instead, it was in the Morales man handbook. Always apologize profusely even when you weren't completely in the wrong. It never failed. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Anastasia snorted again and eventually an image flashed in Leonel's mind.

Across a mountain range about a thousand or so kilometers northwest, there was a serene region. Leonel adjusted his flight path and shot ahead.

"Hey, Anastasia, how far can you see?"

"I can see everything so long as it's one world, but that doesn't mean I should," she replied.

"Oh?"

"Yes. Vivak and Anselma aren't Dream Force experts, so they won't be able to sense me, but that's not the same for everyone."

"And what if you don't care about them sensing you or not?"

"Well, I guess that's not too much of a problem. So long as they aren't in the Life State, that is. Someone in the Life State could both use my senses to track me and even harm me if they're vindictive enough."

"I see," Leonel nodded. "Is there any way to tell who or what areas to avoid?"

"Not until you touch the edge of their domains, but otherwise no. Usually, experts just have their own etiquette and keep the range of their senses within a reasonable range. The more powerful you are, the more flagrant you can be."

"Mm..." Leonel nodded slowly. "In that case, let's be a bit more cautious. Keep your range to a thousand kilometers. At this point, I'll need resources and you're the best metal detector there is. I wasted too many of those precious ores making that flash bang."

"What did you just call me?!"

Leonel's laughter echoed again.

'Hm, after a nice sleep, I should check on that Golden Codex they were talking about.'