Chapter 182: Inadequate
After the initial bout of excitement, Leonel immediately calmed himself.
What was there to be proud about? He had only touched four meters, there were still six more to go. And, it had now become even more obvious to him that the difficulty of crossing that distance doubled with every meter he passed. The fact he had directly jumped from two and a half meters to four was a testament to just how great his Spear Domain Lineage Factor was, but that was all. Was it even possible to improve enough to cross the remaining distance?
The other youths seemed to realize this as well. So, their smiling expressions soon faded.
"Handsome, hurry up and improve some more. I'm too young and beautiful to die." Flowing Wind said this as though joking around, but there was a well hidden fear in her tone. It wasn't something that Leonel would miss.
Leonel took a deep breath.
"You three enter my spatial treasure. It should buy us more time."
Leonel wasn't confident in the Segmented Cube's defensive ability. This wasn't because he was doubting its peak prowess, but rather because it was still in Phase One. In Phase One, it was essentially still limited to Third Dimensional Abilities. So, it was impossible for its abilities to be too grand.
However, if these three youths entered the Segmented Cube and he placed it in his spatial bracelet, then he only needed to activate one Force Skin to protect them all. Like this, his less than four hour time limit would be over thirteen hours.
The three youths looked at each other and nodded.
Here, they were only a burden to Leonel. It would be good if they could help in some way.
Leonel sighed a breath of relief and took out the Segmented Cube.
He found that it was frenziedly absorbing the Force in the surroundings. At this pace, it might only be a few days before it could accumulate enough to evolve into Phase Two. But, Leonel obviously didn't have this long to wait.
Just when Leonel was about to allow the youths in, he suddenly made a pleasant discovery.
'The Segmented Cube can't leave this place, but it's still a natural Force barrier…'
Leonel's eyes glowed with excitement. He hadn't put too much hope in the Segmented Cube. In fact, he had covered it with his Force Skin when he pulled it out just now. But, what he never expected was that it would actually be capable of forcefully absorbing any Force he gave it.
'It can take volatile Force, absorb it, and make it docile!'
In that case, didn't that mean that Leonel's time limit wasn't limited to 13 or so hours anymore?!
Leonel grinned as the three youths looked toward him in confusion.
"It seems we don't need to die here today."
Before the three could ask Leonel what he meant, the Segmented Cube expanded and enveloped the three of them.
On the outside, the Segmented Cube expanded to a ten meter diameter, hovering in the air above the Force Crystal Core.
It shuddered and trembled, bouncing back and forth between the two opposing edges of the Force geyser, but it eventually managed to reach an equilibrium.
Within the Abode Setting, the four youths watched on nervously as a violent earthquake took hold of the world within the Segmented Cube. They only managed to sigh a breath of relief after everything finally settled into a low rumble.
Leonel wasn't any different from them. He too had been worried about the result, but luckily it had all paid off.
"There are a few rooms here. Feel free to pick one. There's also plenty of food and water. I'll definitely get us out of here."
Leonel nodded to the youths. But when they saw the sadness on his expression, they couldn't help but be stunned.
This should have been a happy change of events. Why was it that Leonel didn't seem the slightest bit happy?
Leonel turned to leave.
Flowing Wind wanted to step out and stop him, maybe even try to cheer him up, but she found that two sturdy hands had landed on her shoulders, stopping her from moving forward.
She was completely stunned to find that both Roaring Black Lion and Thunderous Clap had tacitly agreed to stop her as one. She couldn't even react before Leonel had disappeared from her sight.
"Why the hell did you two stop me? He's our savior, shouldn't we at least say thank you? There's no reason for him to be feeling like that."
"You don't get it." Roaring Black Lion said with a snort. "Even if things worked out in the end, his pride is still wounded."
"Pride?" Flowing Wind's brows furrowed. Though it was blocked beneath her mask, one could imagine that it was quite a lovely sight to see.
"It's ultimately his fault that things turned out this way." Thunderous Clap spoke. "There's even an argument to be made here that we're only alive by a fluke. Even stumbling into the ability of this abode type treasure was a mistake."
"What the hell are you saying? We made our own choice to come here with him. Plus, he was in just as much danger as us. Only a bastard would blame him for information we all lacked equally."
"You still don't get it. I don't know what's weighing on Indom… Leonel's mind, but whatever it is, he definitely feels like his performance makes him unworthy of meeting those goals.
"He takes himself to be responsible for our lives. Whether it was coming to this hive or accelerating the maturity of the Force Crystal Core, they were all his ideas. But, he's seemingly made one mistake after another.
"For a man like him, he definitely feels inadequate."
Flowing WInd snorted. "If it was just garbage male pride, you should have just said so from the beginning. But he's so handsome and caring at the same time, this lady definitely likes him."
Roaring Black Lion and Thunderous Clap looked at one another helplessly. This Flowing Wind girl was definitely too far gone.