TIME

Leonel coughed up a mouthful of blood, his pupils constricting. He felt that he was on the verge of dying. His Dream Force was quickly dissipating, and though he wouldn't die a true death, he would lose without having even ascended the mountain, and that would be a different form of death. Even if he didn't die immediately, the Human Race would certainly be finished.

However, Leonel managed to maintain his tranquility.

His first thought was that he had accidentally triggered something he shouldn't have, maybe a failsafe of sorts. When you were using a treasure like this and using trial and error instead of raw comprehension, it was inevitable that you might accidentally stumble into such a thing.

However, after seeing that the shield wasn't actually trying to kill him, Leonel's eyes narrowed.

He paid close attention to what was really happening, and when he figured it out, his eyes widened.

He retrieved his Dream Force and coughed up another mouthful of blood as the belt was ripped out of his chest.

His Dream Force was still quickly dissipating, but he used the Life Tablet to keep it intact. Then, he rushed down the mountain, looking for a target. When he found a Tier Six, he swiftly killed it then continued to find another, and then another.

Eventually, his Dream Force finally stabilized.

He took deep heaving breaths. That was really close. If not for the Life Tablet, it would have all been over because of his recklessness. © content.

He didn't usually think of himself as a reckless person, but he couldn't really describe what had just happened as anything but reckless. He had made a mistake and it had almost cost him.

But this mistake hadn't come without its benefits.

'What an interesting treasure...' Leonel muttered to himself, turning the shield over.

The basic ability of the Shield was pretty simple: pour Dream Force in and get a pulse of it out the other direction in return. The more you poured in, the greater the output.

At the apex, Leonel could release a blast at Tier Eight just like Regnier could, but his understanding of the treasure was limited, so he could only do it once every ten seconds. In addition, if he was correct, even if he reached Tier Nine, Tier Nine would still be the best the shield could do, though he would be able to conjure it faster.

This made sense because this ability wasn't the main ability of the shield at all, it was just the cover used to hide its true ability, and that ability was obviously related to the hole that had just been a part of his chest.

There was a purpose behind that action just now that went beyond just a failsafe against those that didn't know how to use it.

The shield's wraps put him in a near-death state so that he would be on the verge of returning to his body on purpose. That way, the connection between him and his real body would suddenly firm up.

The benefit of this was obvious: it would have allowed Regnier to use his real abilities for just a short time.

The problem, though, was obvious. The moment you activated this function, you would be on a ticking timer. And since you would have to be in a near-death state to make it work, the time was most definitely not long. If you could get a few seconds out of it, it would already be excellent.

Leonel, however, had an advantage Regnier didn't... and that was the life tablet.

According to that first experience, Leonel felt that he could last about three minutes total... if his Dream Force was endless. Unfortunately, making use of the Life Tablet wasn't exactly all sunshine and rainbows.

Without an endless supply of Dream Force, he could only last for a little over a minute. And, after that minute was up, he would obviously need a large amount of Dream Force to stabilize his body again to stop himself from dying.

To make matters worse, this minute of time would be even smaller if he used his Dream Force to do anything else, like controlling a beast or anything of the like.

Luckily, the Dream Force he was referring to here was that of his real body, which was separate from the Dream Force this avatar was using. But it was still something to note regardless.

Leonel flipped the shield in his hands and it returned to the form of a belt that wrapped around his arm. Thoughts swirled in his head.

'Reach Tier Eight.'

So that was what Leonel did. He ignored everything else and began hunting Tier Eights. He was much more cautious, knowing that the Owlans were likely nearby.

But to his surprise, or maybe his expectations... they never appeared before him.

The more Leonel killed, the deeper his sneer became. This sneer didn't appear on his face, but the contempt in his heart was rolling like waves.

He knew why the Owlans were doing this; they were arrogant. They probably weren't waiting for him in specific; they were waiting for whoever it was killed him in the end.

Ultimately, there was only one way out of this place, and it was up that mountain.

They would sit there, prim and proper, beautiful and unblemished, ready for their rewards to be delivered to their laps.

However, he would make them regret that choice. Maybe if they pressed him, tried to suffocate his advantage, they'd have a chance to win. In fact, the reason Leonel had originally chosen the speed win aspect of things was that he felt that too many people would be hunting him.

But if they wanted to shoot themselves in the foot, he wouldn't stop them. They were just laying out the path for his dominant victory.

All of the Pavilion Heads would fall into his hands.

Leonel's aura flourished, and he entered Tier Eight.

'It's time.'

He quickly found a secluded region, ready to break into the Life State for the second time.