Chapter 2526: Tier One

'I need a method of measuring strength in this place, my previous attempt was too crude. I'll go back to my roots.'

Leonel smiled to himself. He remembered the first time he had stepped into this world of blood and carnage, his days back in the Mayan Temple. He had thought his Ability Index was just purely sensory due to the Ascension Empire's watch. So, he had tried to maximize it in the best ways he could. One method was assigning enemies he saw various stats. He had built that database off of what he knew about human limits and the like, and it had worked well until overpowered Ability Indexes and Forces began to play a larger and larger role.

He eventually abandoned that model because it wasn't worth his while to keep tabs on it. Though, he still had a natural ability to read a person's ability, see through their weaknesses and strengths, and act accordingly.

'There's no need to use such an elaborate system as I'll only need it for the length of this Challenge. Let's go with a simple Tier One to Tier Nine system for threat levels. I'll place my initial level at Tier One for when I just entered this world and Tier Nine is probably the power you'd need to reach the top of the mountain. I'll put a threat like the little fox at Tier Zero as they aren't any threat to me at all...

'I'd guess that the likes of Clarence would probably be a Tier Two threat to me the moment he stepped into this world. From what I can tell about the other, the highest threat upon just entering this world would be that woman, she's at least at Tier Five even without gathering any treasures and the like. Her entourage is only a half step below her as well, both of them could likely be considered Tier Five as well. Most are at Tier Three, with only a few stragglers being at Tier Two like Clarence, but they're the minority. There should also be another minority at Tier Four as well.

'After absorbing the two elephants, I'd say that I'm about halfway to a Tier Two threat. With the scepter, I'm about 60% of the way there. Just taking advantage of my added flexibility in using Dream Force compared to others, I am probably comparable to a Tier Two threat already.'

Leonel nodded to himself, feeling comfortable with his new system. He had to work faster than others because he wasn't the only person who could improve in this place. His greatest advantages lay in one, his flexibility, and two, in the knowledge he could gather.

The fact that he was already halfway to Tier Two with such a poor treasure and just two Tier One threats like the elephants just went to show how great his advantage was.

By his calculations, another person would have to absorb what amounted to 20 elephants of similar strength to make as much progress as he just had.

Leonel returned to the little fox. It was close to breaking out of its box and bared its teeth the moment it saw Leonel, but Leonel had already used the elephants and the scepter to mostly recover by now.

He released the fox and brought it under control again. With the help of the elephants, he actually felt that the amount of Dream Force he had to use to keep it under control had lessened a bit. He could keep it up for seven or eight minutes now. That was perfect.

"Lead the way."

The little fox did as it was told, and Leonel was pulled around the mountain. He didn't allow the fox to pull him toward the other mountain ranges, choosing to limit it to this mountain alone.

Of course, that was also a detriment to Leonel as well. The little fox was too weak to move around much more than the bottom ranges of the mountains, so it didn't know much of anything about what was going on up above.

That said, that detriment probably also benefited Leonel as well. He was too weak to rush to greater challenges right now. The weakness of the little fox was exactly what he needed.

Even so, sometimes Leonel had to outright ignore some of the locations the little fox led him to. Twice, in fact.

One was for a sword, and the other was for a pair of boots.

He ignored the sword because it was of little use to him. He didn't kill the creatures around it either because even though it would benefit him, it might also let someone else take cheap advantage of the situation-though he was fairly certain that there was no one else in this mountain range but himself.

The boots, however, had another problem, and that was that he would need at least Tier Three strength before trying to claim it. That was because it was perched at the top of a large crystalline tree embedded into the side of the mountain range, a tree that was guarded by a Snowy Star Owl.

The Tree was easily over 200 meters tall, and the owl that called it home was easily over five. That owl was the first Tier Four threat that Leonel had run into.

Still, none of this stopped Leonel from quickly reaching Tier Two.

Even at this stage, the scepter still gave the same 20% boost. It seemed that the strength these weapons and treasures gave were consistent and didn't change.

By this point, Leonel had gathered a cloak, a belt, and a necklace.

Their boosts didn't stack or multiply; they were instead additive. The scepter and belt gave a 20% boost, while the cloak and necklace both gave 10% boosts. In total, Leonel's Dream Force abilities were amplified by 50% total.

Although it should have been 60%, it seemed that there was a drawback to the treasures after all.