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C1592 Effort

The young man grit his teeth, but now that he was pinned down and Leonel's lotuses were spinning around him, there was little he could do. The trees of the demon world were far too sturdy and his weapons were far too elite to be so easily dealt with.

Now that he was pinned up like this, there was simply nothing he could do but be obedient.

"First question, why are you alone?"

This wasn't what was at the forefront of Leonel's mind, but he wanted to soften this young man up a bit and also get a baseline for him. With the young man in his Dream World, every single detail of his being was imprinted into Leonel's mind. If he wanted to lie after Leonel had grasped a feeling for when he was telling the truth, it would be almost impossible.

The young man looked toward Leonel with disdain. He realized that Leonel must have thought that teaming up happened here just like everywhere else.

"This is the Fiend Class Sector, not some kiddie pool," the young man replied with a sneer.

Leonel sighed and shook his head.

BANG!

A palm of the panda construct slammed into the tree, shocking the young man and causing it to sway about wildly.

The young man grit his teeth, the pain of his body swaying on blades more than just a few words could describe. Unfortunately, he had the sturdy body and bones of a Sixth Dimensional existence and he could only experience his body being slowly cut into with every sway.

"I need answers, not cheeky replies. Get to the point and stick to it. While you're at it, put away that condescending look and smirk. In case you didn't notice, your life and death is in my hands."

The young man's jaw steeled. If looks could kill, maybe a laser would have already pierced right through Leonel's forehead already. But he remained unmoved, his gaze growing frighteningly cold as an aura of majesty exuded from him.

"… There are no groupings in the Fiend Class Sector," the young man spoke through gritted teeth, "the demon world bubble is too large. It's easier to split up, and that's part of the challenge anyway."

Leonel's eyes narrowed. Easier to split up? Too large? This made sense, this place was indeed far too large.

"Since this is a real world, how exactly do you plan on counting the 10% mark? Were all of these demons already tagged?"

The young man's brows furrowed. This Leonel Oliidark really didn't understand a single thing at all, did he? But this made sense, the young man had never even heard of an Oliidark family, so it had to be a small place that gained some good luck and produced a genius like this.

Maybe he could take advantage of this?

"10%? What do you mean?"

Leonel shook his head.

BANG!

Another palm slammed into the tree. This one was even harder than the last, causing the young man to seesaw on the two sickles as though he was trying to cut himself into three pieces.

He roared out in pain, his body trembling. But while Leonel had made a move to stop the sway before, he allowed the swaying to naturally end this time.

"Don't waste my time," Leonel said coldly. "Now, I'll ask you again, how exactly do you plan on counting the 10% mark?"

Leonel could already see the marker's for "recognition" in the young man's eyes the moment he mentioned 10%, but now he was pretending like he didn't know? It was a stupid lie, but it was also a good one for Leonel to call him out on.

The earlier he caught the young man in a lie and the earlier he made him realize that he couldn't be lied to, the less likely he would be to lie in the future. If Leonel's question continuously became more complex, even with his abilities, if the young man became smart and started to tell half truths, it would become difficult to differentiate them.

With things being like this, it would be less likely to be a problem.

Like this, Leonel began to squeeze out all the information he needed. Ten minutes later, he nodded and turned to leave, leaving the young man pinned to the tree. As far as Leonel was concerned, he could figure out a way down himself.

…

'Things are more complicated than I thought, but also simpler depending on how you look at things.'

Things worked a lot differently in the Fiend Class Sector and it turned out that he and Aina were left in the dark all the while. However, it was a good thing that they had been because without their current strength, knowing would have been absolutely useless.

The reason Leonel hadn't found an exchange all this time was because in this Sector, even earning a chance to exchange required a hard battle. He had to find a certain or certain demons with gems hidden within their bodies. These gems could be shattered for a direct teleportation into a new space where he could then exchange for what he needed.

The value of the gem and the quality of store you were teleported to was dependent, unsurprisingly, on the strength of the demon.

If Leonel wanted a path to the highest echelon exchange there was, he either needed to defeat one Tier 9 higher Fiend Class demon with a gem, ten Tier 9 middle Fiend Class demons with a gem, or a hundred Tier 9 lower Fiend Class demons with a gem.

With the latter two options, the gems would have to be combined into one using a special method which would still require higher Fiend Class demon blood…

In other words: battle and more battling.

Without the strength to defeat a higher Fiend Class demon, you could forget about getting a chance to enter the best exchanges. This rule was likely put in place for the likes of Leonel who gathered so many points in the Human Class Sector and hoped to use them here.

In the past, this would have been a huge hurdle to jump for Leonel. But now… it would just require a bit more effort.

Before, he had just been looking for demons compatible with himself, Aina and his friends. But now that he knew he had to look for gems, his entire outlook shifted.

To be continued