STICK IN THE ASS

"The line that separates Force Pill Crafting and Crafting is a fine one. In her scholarly writing, Lythariel Seeker, noted three particular points of this interweaving tapestry. These points came to be known as the Convergences, an overlapping set of principles that both disciplines rely upon.

"These three Convergences are the Point of Life, Point of Dimension, and the Point of Creation.

"According to the analysis of you and your partner, are these Convergences comprehensive? Are there too many or too little of them? If they are perfect, what does this mean for the disciplines? Is there hope of them one day becoming one under a unified banner?"

Leonel looked up at the ridiculous question and felt like he was back in school again. Which stick-up-the-ass professor concocted this nonsense?

Lythariel Seeker? Who was that? Point of Life? Point of Dimension? Point of Creation? What even were those things? He had not a single clue.

Looking at the general confusion in the region, it seemed that he wasn't alone either.

He shook his head, having already predicted much of this. This was the worst-case scenario for the path Minerva could have taken, it was just a bit annoying to watch it play out.

But the issue with this wasn't just that the question was steeped in countless years of ironic academia speak, but rather that it did so while forcing the fusion of two disciplines.

If it was just about Crafting or just about Force Pill Crafting, it could still be acceptable. But because it was a nigh esoteric question that touched upon both disciplines made it cross over from the realms of just difficult to outright sinister.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

If it was just related to Crafting, Leonel could likely deduce what the meaning of all of these things were. However, there were multiple reasons he couldn't do the same as easily now.

For one, he needed the context of a Force Pill Crafter to do the same. Second, the words hadn't been spoken. Instead, they were just put up on a message board and read. It had already been muddied by so many fluctuations of Dream Force that there was nothing for Leonel to take advantage of.

Third, while he had the Life Tablet, it didn't just give him random tidbits of information on any and everything. It had important documents related to history and it also had the rules of the Dream Pavilion spelled out in detail, but it didn't have academic papers on the philosophy of Crafting lying around.

Leonel looked up at this question for a full three seconds before he looked away, a time interval that might as well have been an eternity to him.

In the end, he shrugged. 'Well played.'

Going as far as to set up this message board was truly a clever move, he couldn't deny it. It seemed that Minerva was being far more cautious than she even needed to be.

Leonel sent a glance toward the other youths, but he almost immediately felt a suppression on his Dream Force. It wasn't just him, but it happened to everybody.

Minerva didn't say a word, but everyone understood. In a gathering of Dream Force experts, cheating could be abound if there were no precautions taken. On the surface, this seemed like a helpful nudge for the lower rungs-after all, if the Demi-Gods wanted to cheat, how could they stop them? But Leonel knew that this was clearly targeted at him.

Demi-God or not, who could resist his Dream Force at this point?

Leonel smiled.

If it wasn't at least this difficult, where would the fun be?

'I actually know who she is,' Aina's voice echoed in Leonel's mind.

'You do?'

'Mm... She's a Blood Sovereign. There are recordings of her in the Golden Tablet. But she was a bit weird in that she didn't use her Blood Sovereignty to concoct pills like I do. She purely used Life Force. I didn't really like her method because it focused too much on imbuing life rather than actually creating it. I thought that it defeated the purpose.'

'Did it mention the Convergences?' Leonel asked.

Aina shook her head. 'No, there was nothing about that. There weren't even methods, honestly. It was just a technique that gave a small introduction to how to refine Force Herbs.'

'Let me see it,' Leonel suddenly said.

Aina nodded and a stream of information was passed on to Leonel.

Leonel fell into his thoughts, scanning through the entire technique in just a split second. It was extremely rudimentary and was clearly designed for children to dip their toes into the concept.

'This woman can't be simple, though... if there is...'

Leonel's eyes narrowed. If this woman was mentioned in the Blood Sovereignty Tablet, she was almost certainly mentioned in the historical records of the Life Tablet.

Leonel had just assumed that she wouldn't be, but he made a mental note to always check just in case in the future.

However, when he tried to communicate with the Life Tablet, his eyes narrowed.

'I can't?'

The limitation was definitely not on the Life Tablet. It was on him. These people couldn't possibly suppress the Life Tablet.

'I see. They didn't just suppress Dream Force, they went deeper, severing our connection with the Second Dimension and the Dream World in general. But in that case, how is it that I can still use my soul to communicate with Aina? That should have been cut off as well...'

Leonel realized that he had no method of finding an immediate answer to this question.

'Wait, if they truly cut off access to the Second Dimension, we would just all die. Our bodies would become fleshly sacks. That means what they're restricting here isn't actually the Second Dimension, but rather the communication between Dimensions.

'Then, that means the reason I can talk with Aina is because she's followed the perfect human path. Her ability to communicate with the Second Dimension isn't cut off because her soul is perfectly fused with her body.

'And because we are husband and wife, she has a sliver of my soul within her... which means.'

Aina felt a pulse in her mind that made her blush. She gave Leonel a glare, but she ultimately didn't resist. This was all really too embarrassing.

Leonel chuckled. Brushing up against Aina's soul might as well have been like caressing her naked body. If you added that on top of this fact his wife was clearly an exhibitionist adjacent, then her reaction was all but expected.

Suddenly, the Life Tablet that wasn't responding to Leonel before began to do so. A smirk curled his lips, but he immediately focused on the task at hand.

According to what he understood, the tablets like the Blood Sovereign Tablets weren't created by the God Beasts of Creation like the Wise and Legacy Tablets. Instead, they were created by Wise Star Orders after the fact in homage to the Infinity Beasts.

However, the Wise Star Orders of that time were on a completely different level and still had access to the Northern Star Lineage Factor.

What was more important than that, though, was that the task of documenting events and passing on knowledge that all Wise Star Orders were tasked with was entirely focused on the cream of the crop.

This was to say that if Lythariel appeared in Aina's tablet, she almost certainly appeared in the Life Tablet.

Soon, Leonel found the information he wanted.

'Lythariel ... Van''Wellia?' Leonel didn't expect to see that second name, but he continued to skim.

Unfortunately, he didn't find any direct information about this topic. Instead, it was all focused on her feats and things of the sort. Those two women were mentioned together a lot, mostly due to blood and carnage.

However, as Leonel continued to read, he began to pick up on tidbits of information here and there that helped him build up the context he needed.

'Hm...'

'Did you find it?' Aina asked.

'Maybe like 20% of it? But we'll need to actually collaborate if I want to understand the rest of it. Lay it on me, wife. I'm at your mercy."

Aina shook her head and laughed. Then, she latched on to Leonel's understanding and started to try and fill in gaps of her own.

In Leonel's mind, he constructed a new Dreamscape, one built around finding the answer to this question in specific so that Aina wouldn't be overwhelmed by his other thoughts and deductions.

Slowly, they started to build up their understanding until a voice suddenly rang out.

"The fifteen minutes are up," Minerva said lightly. She waved a hand and several wooden tablets descended from the skies. "These are Dream Impression Tablets for those of you unfamiliar. This will be another part of your challenge. I will give you three minutes to imprint your answers."

Leonel caught the flying tablet and chuckled. It seemed that they were really intent on making this as difficult as possible, huh?

If he was correct, over 80% here wouldn't even be able to submit an answer.