EASIER
The flood of information came in such fierce waves that Leonel's mind nearly collapsed. If it wasn't for the fact he had experience with becoming a Dream Asura, and the extra flood of information and sensory overload that came with it, it might have truly happened.
He had no choice but to hunker down and hope that Clarence didn't use the opportunity to attack him. But the truth was that the current Dream Force affinity around him was so dense that someone trying to approach might just directly lose their mind as well. Clarence couldn't get close even if he wanted to.
It wasn't until three days later that the flood of information finally stopped, and Leonel was able to open up a haggard pair of eyes. It looked as though he hadn't slept in years; his mind had really gone through what felt like centuries of living just now. It wasn't the kind of thing he wanted to experience again in a short time.
Luckily, aside from his experience as his enlightened self, he was also a Dream Sovereign and had strengthened his body considerably, allowing him to access more of the true strength of his Dream Force.
As for the information he had received, it was unsurprisingly... a lot.
For one, there was a bunch of information about the Vast Dream Pavilion and its history. He learned that he had somehow become the de facto Pavilion Head and all this responsibility he had wanted to avoid in the first place had suddenly been thrown onto his shoulders.
Just earlier, he had wanted to create his own organization; he was already cycling between different cool uniform ideas and equally as cool names, and now he was strapped with this?
The truth was that if Leonel could take the benefits and avoid the hassle, he would. The trouble was that with that information had also come a great deal of context.
He was aware that every Dream Pavilion in existence knew what was in that box, which meant everyone knew that it was suddenly in the hands of a "Fifth Dimensional" brat who just happened to be a Dream Sovereign. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.
That second part was enough to shock them, but not nearly enough that they would suddenly change their minds about attacking him. What did Leonel being a Dream Sovereign have to do with their own goals and aspirations? They would rather claim the power he had for themselves, regardless of his life and death.
The only way to keep the Life Tablet protected from greedy eyes was to use the Dream Pavilion itself as a protective mechanism to tie the hands of those that wanted to take advantage of him...
The problem was that all the Contribution Points he would have needed to do that had just been gambled away by Clarence. If nothing was done, the Vast Dream Pavilion would plummet to 9999th place and then all hell would break loose.
It was truly the worst sort of outcome and there was little he could do but play this game now.
'How fucking annoying...'
Leonel didn't even know how he would do this; it would probably be the most dangerous thing he had ever done, and that was saying something. He had just escaped the hands of two organizations flooded with Ninth Dimensional experts as a Third Dimensional expert, and after getting hundreds of times stronger, he would suddenly be facing off against enemies likely thousands of times stronger than the Ninth Dimensional experts he had just escaped.
Luckily, it wasn't all bad. Even if it was, Leonel would have managed to keep his calm. But now that he also had information to back that, he was even more at ease.
Another challenge? So what?
The so-called True Dream Plane wasn't a place anyone could do as they pleased. It was a location where the only Force available was Dream Force. In fact, even though it was called the True Dream Plane, and it was advertised as something you could enter with your body, that wasn't necessarily true either.
According to this information, the True Dream Plane would only allow the portion of your soul that acted as a connecting line to your body to enter.
One could see, then, how this would put humans at a great disadvantage.
Dream Force was freest when it was separated from the body. Even for Leonel's Control Ability Index, he could only use his Dream World as a proxy to impose order onto his body.
Humans who entered the True Dream Plane would find themselves fighting back against a great amount of cognitive dissonance. When that was layered with their already relatively weak Dream Force to begin with, it was a nightmare.
Luckily, Leonel didn't have this problem, and there were many other things he would be able to take advantage of in that situation, especially when the Life Tablet was on his side and given the fact he was a Dream Sovereign.
There wasn't much else left to do than prepare.
He turned his attention to Clarence. The latter had already recovered and seemed to have been watching over him. There was a tinge of regret in his eyes, but also a hint of helplessness.
Hindsight was 20-20. If he had known everything in advance, he would have never triggered the Challenge sequence. But what was done was done. At this point, he could only say that they were lucky that Leonel had taken so long to appear. Thanks to that, their opponents were already locked in.
If the higher-ranked Dream Pavilions had known of Leonel's existence, or the Life Tablet had been claimed earlier, they would have definitely entered this Challenge as well.
However, just because they couldn't enter any longer, didn't mean that they wouldn't be able to influence the situation. There was no doubt that they were already moving in the shadows.
And Leonel's arrogance, even to the point of kicking them all out so forcefully...
Well, it definitely wouldn't make things any easier.