Chapter 417: Shadows (2)

Leonel put his spear away and raised the little mink in his arms, observing the little guy curiously.

When he focused in on the blobs of black, Leonel realized something astonishing. Each one of them had a different character to them.

Those with stronger presences were larger while those with weaker ones were smaller. But, it wasn't just this either. Each seemed to have a different feel.

The largest of them carried a biting cold to them. There were two of them in total. One seemed to want to completely envelop you in an avalanche while the other was sharp like a thin, cooled knife slicing into your body.

Leonel felt like he remembered them from somewhere...

'Those 12 ice guards, two of them reminded me of this feeling!'

Leonel's eyes widened in realization. These blobs, they were the shadows of the enemies Little Blackstar had killed.

'Blackstar can't absorb them?' Leonel thought, confused. '... They're disappearing too.'

Leonel seemed to realize two things immediately after understanding what he was dealing with. The first was that Blackstar didn't seem capable of swallowing these shadows like he had the shadow of Simeon's numbered warrior. And the second was that they were slowly fading. The more powerful of them seemed to linger on for longer, but the weaker ones were already collapsing to the point Leonel could hardly sense them.

'There are two potential reasons for why Blackstar can't absorb them. It's either that he had an affinity limitation or it's that he can only take in one at a time. If it's the latter, then that means the only way he could take on a new ability is if he gave the one he has already...'

Leonel frowned, sinking into his own thoughts.

The ability Blackstar could mimic now came from one of Simeon's handpicked warriors. From Leonel's comprehension, it was an S-grade ability at worse.

That said, the ice guards were SSS-grade Invalids, so their abilities obviously likewise followed suit.

The true issue was that the sharpness ability of that numbered warrior was very useful to Leonel. When he and the little mink worked in tandem, Leonel could gain an extension of this ability. This was what had allowed him to threaten Jilniya's life back then. Of course, at the time, Leonel had also relied on many other things like the General Style and his Dreamscape Battle Sense. But, it was still an important factor.

Leonel curiously reached out a hand toward one of the shadows. He didn't seem to realize that Aina was looking at him from the side with a confused light coloring her eyes. It seemed that only Leonel and Little Blackstar could see these floating shadows.

'Huh?'

Leonel shot his hand back, his heart beat quickening.

"What's wrong?" Aina finally couldn't hold back, a slight tinge of worry in her voice.

The little mink had charged over here after sensing Leonel's agitation. So, she had already appeared realizing she might have to calm Leonel down from doing something stupid again. But, this was completely out of her expectations.

"I..."

Leonel took a deep breath and explained things.

"... I felt as though something about myself would fundamentally change if I absorbed it into my body."

"You're saying others can absorb them?" Aina's expression changed.

Such a thing was inconceivable. If this was true, then the value of such an ability would be impossible to calculate.

Aina couldn't help but look toward the little mink with a new light in her eyes.

The little mink crawled up from Leonel's hands, up his arm and stood proudly on his shoulder as though showing off. Such a scene pulled out a smile from the depths of Aina's heart.

"I don't think it's so simple." Leonel said slowly. "It's hard to explain, but I felt as though absorbing that shadow would take something away from me, almost as though it was taking an average of my shadow and this one to form an all-new shadow."

Leonel's senses were incredibly sensitive. On top of that, his memory was impeccable. He was able to simulate that exact moment again and again in his Dream World.

'What if...'

Leonel closed his eyes. With Aina around him, he didn't have to worry about anything else.

In his Dream World, a new Dream Clone appeared. But, this time, it wasn't himself but rather a perfect replica of Joel. Everything from his height, to his mannerisms, to his ability were perfectly reflected.

After breaking through, Leonel's simulations within the Third Dimension had a 99% accuracy rating. He could practically reflect the world perfectly in his mind.

Over ten minutes later, Leonel opened his eyes, his gaze blazing.

Aina, who had been watching over Leonel this whole like looked to him with a half annoyed, half curious look. This really wasn't the place to suddenly be taking a nap.

By now, the shadows had all faded away into nothing, but Leonel didn't mind one bit. To him, the information he gleaned from them was far more important than the strength they could provide him.

This matter was life changing. He couldn't just casually take action without testing out every parameter he could.

In that time, Leonel learned a few things.

First, the limitation on the little mink wasn't affinity related, it was a limitation of quantity. In the little guy's current state, only a single ability could be absorbed by him.

Second, anyone could absorb any shadow as long as they had the little mink as a proxy. However, it wouldn't be a simple addition to one's ability. Only the little mink had the benefit of absorbing abilities without consequences, everyone else had to weigh the pros and cons.

One had to treat the shadow like one's soul. Randomly absorbing the shadows of others into oneself would be like changing oneself fundamentally.

If someone with a strong ability absorbed a weaker ability, that someone's overall strength would become an average of the two. In addition, if the two abilities weren't compatible, it could lead to a disharmony that could cripple a person entirely.

Even beyond this, there was the matter of oneself. It was very likely that absorbing a shadow could influence one's personality in ways one would never even expect.

All of this made Leonel realize that this ability would be useless for him. Where could he find an ability comparable or better to the Quasi Silver monstrosity that was his own? And, even if he did, where would he find one compatible with something as outrageously rare as Dream Force?

But Leonel didn't care. He felt that he was talented and powerful enough. He had yet to find his match in that regard, though that was obviously in part due to the fact he had yet to reach higher Dimensional worlds.

What Leonel really cared about were the benefits his teammates might gain from this. If they had more strength to protect themselves, it would be for the best.

Leonel kept getting this nagging feeling that something big was coming, but he couldn't completely finish connecting all the dots. This left him feeling uneasy... Unfortunately, all he could do was prepare to the best of his ability.

Still, he had to consider the problem of warped personalities. If the friends he had grown up with all his life suddenly became completely different people... then who had he saved, exactly?

Leonel sighed and rubbed the little mink's head, its little whiskers twitching.

At that moment, the grinding of loud gears caught Leonel's attention.

'Oh... So they want to open the inner city now?' Leonel's gaze suffused with a cold light.