A FORMER WEAKNESS

Amery was in the same exact state that Leonel remembered him being in: sweating buckets and swinging the very same wooden sword. In fact, the only thing that had changed was that he was using a different hand, but Leonel was pretty sure that was a coincidence.

Amery had always been a dual sword wielder, so it wasn't a surprise that he would use both hands. In fact, part of the reason for that was because his Innate Nodes were in his hands.

He probably wasn't born ambidextrous, but had instead learned it. That said, it was clear that he had a proclivity toward it nonetheless.

The reason it would be easier for him to learn to use his off-hand compared to others was precisely because of that Innate Node in his left hand. It made certain that the Nodal Pathways in his arm were just as robust as the Nodal Pathways in his dominant arm. Thus, so long as he trained his muscle memory, the skill would come naturally.

Seeing Amery still working at it, Leonel felt a slight hint of admiration. It was something that he wouldn't usually feel toward others. In fact, the only man who had ever elicited such awe in him was his father.

However, maybe because he was in a bit of a charitable mood, he had projected some of that onto Amery.

However, it wasn't truly because he felt that what Amery was doing was impressive, but rather because of a certain empathy.

The only difference between himself and Amery in regard to this training was that Leonel had timed it in a time-warped zone, while Amery had been drilling himself in this clearing, in the same spot, to the point he was already standing in a crater of his own making.

What made it more shocking was that this crater wasn't due to a sudden and abrupt use of power. It only appeared because he had been grinding at the same region with his feet again, and again, and again, tirelessly for years on end.

Leonel could tell with a glance that the man hadn't even eaten anything in all these years. His entire focus was on the sword and he replaced any of his nutritional needs with Force.

In fact, Leonel was pretty sure that he wasn't even absorbing energy from the surroundings at all. Instead, he was relying entirely on his two Innate Nodes.

From what Leonel knew, Amery had one Dark Force Innate Node and a second Gaia Force Innate Node.

Gaia Force was a truly shocking and rare Force that was a fusion of Water, Earth, and Life Forces. It allowed the user to borrow power from both land and water to bolster their strength considerably.

With such a setup, it could be said that Amery was a unit no matter what battlefield he stepped onto, the only exception being the vacuum of space itself. But in that case, everyone took a hit. After all, there was no Force for anyone in space.

Leonel didn't say anything for a long while as he simply observed Amery.

Right now, he wasn't in a rush. He had already taught the Sylvan who dared to lay a hand on his child a severe lesson.

Although it was up in the air if that Sylvan was still alive in another form or not, Leonel knew that rushing wouldn't get him anywhere right now.

The Four Great Families were definitely antsy and could easily overextend themselves right now. They knew that someone had infiltrated their world, but they had no idea where this person was.

Leonel planned on letting them stew in that discomfort for much longer before he struck again, and in that time, he would build up the coalition that he should have long ago.

When he appeared in the world once again, there would be an entirely different Legion to worry about.

Amery had certainly noticed Leonel's appearance already, but since he didn't say anything, he just continued to swing, and swing, and swing.

"You've hit a wall." Content provided by .

This was what Leonel said after an entire three hours of observing Amery in silence.

The truth was that it had taken Leonel this long to fully analyze Amery's state. Although his Dream Force was on another level now, Amery's skill was also no joke.

Trying to use Dream Path for a swordsman when he had no affinity for swords, and said swordsman was nearing him in skill, was incredibly difficult.

However, in the end, he was still a step beyond Amery in terms of Weapon Force mastery. So he knew where Amery had to go and about where he was.

Amery's sword stopped and he looked toward Leonel with a level gaze, his chest heaving in an oddly slow rhythm as sweat beaded down his body.

"You're ironically too obsessed with the sword and it's not letting you see what's beyond it."

Amery's brows furrowed.

"If you can answer this question, you'll make it through," Leonel continued calmly. "Ask yourself… do you want a sword that lords over all things, or a sword that is all things?"

Amery's eyes flashed like a bright pair of torches.

In truth, when it came to his Weapon Force, Leonel felt that Amery stood on the same level as him. The difference between them was that Leonel had a Dream Force affinity that was off the charts, one that allowed him to see his Weapon Forces from a different sort of perspective, a perspective Amery couldn't see.

At the same time, Leonel had those ten years in the Sea God Zone to blow Amery out of the water. Though, he didn't really count those because Amery had started training far younger than he had as well.

All things considered, they should be at about the same level… but they weren't. And the reason for that was ironically the one thing Leonel had always seen as a weakness…

He had too many affinities.

Now that he had reached this point, he realized that could be an asset as well.