Leonel looked at his hands, feeling a bit shocked.
He was certain that he had still not reached Grade One designation yet even after almost two months of diligent training. But now, he had suddenly leaped over that and reached the Advanced Grade One designation? There was only one explanation… [Dimensional Cleanse].
Leonel was pleasantly surprised. Did this mean that when he formed his Third Star he would be able to reach the Superior Grade One designation without forming Force Nodes in his hands?
Leonel's eyes brightened, immediately taking back all the disparaging remarks he had made about the technique's creator. Even now, he had vastly underestimated [Dimensional Cleanse], he had never thought it would be this good.
'I have to find a way to get my hands on the latter parts. If the upper portions are as good as this first part, that would be amazing.'
Leonel laughed like a little kid, testing out his fingers as though he was playing the air like a piano. He felt almost like a newborn baby with the coordination and strength of an adult. His fingers felt so fresh that he couldn't even crack them.
'I can finally listen to the third book.'
Leonel didn't care about anything else and immediately immersed himself within the teachings his father left behind. Unknowingly, Force Crafting had become less about a competition between him and his father and more about his own curiosity. Even he himself didn't realize just how eager he had been to learn more until now.
The feeling of being blocked off for so long left him feeling a bit anxious. But all that weight was now gone and he smiled like a little kid.
**
A week later, Leonel finally stood on the deck of the wooden yacht. He could feel curious gazes shooting off toward him from time to time, but since Lieutenant Damian didn't say much about him, those around didn't question it either. They immediately knew that Leonel must be some new recruit.
Leonel wasn't paying very much attention to the stares, though. Instead, he was looking toward the behemoth of a structure in the distance. He had no idea that the mobile checkpoint would really be so… monstrous.
It was a massive steel structure that stood like a metal box in the ocean. Even towering waves didn't seem capable of shifting it one way or another. It was so impossibly immobile that Leonel had a hard time believing that this place was capable of moving at all.
But, this was where the descriptions ended. Aside from some landing pads for helicopters and runways for planes, there were no other landmarks on the massive steel behemoth. Leonel could only guess that all of its most important structures were hidden within.
'What a feat…' Leonel thought with a light gasp.
"Impressive, huh kid?" Damian grinned, slapping Leonel's back hard.
"Shouldn't you be focused on steering the ship?"
If Leonel took his eyes off of the floating checkpoint, he could see numerous ships approaching from all angles. A few were even nearby and sailing along in parallel. But, none of these ships were wooden like Damian's. It was either Damian's sector had poor funding, or Damian purposely chose this design to make use of his ability.
Damian rubbed his nose, laughing lightly.
"So you saw through that too, huh? I only take control of the ship when we're forced into a corner. It's a trump card, so I don't use it casually."
"I see…" Leonel mumbled.
"Hey, Lieutenant? Are you really still not going to tell us who the kid is?"
A lady wearing a skin-tight black jumpsuit walked over, her eyes watery with grievances as though she might start crying at any moment. The first thought Leonel had about her was that if catwoman was real and jumped out from her comic, this was what she would be like.
"He's a new recruit, you can call him Leo."
The lady's eyes brightened. "In the past, new recruits never got to go to the checkpoint. It was only after the Metamorphosis began that they changed the rule to make an exception for a certain group of people. Don't tell me you're a Variant like Lieutenant?"
Many curious gazes looked over.
"Come on, kid. Show me your power, quick, quick. I'm curious."
Leonel scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"I can't, my ability is a sensory type."
The lady pouted in dissatisfaction, but her curiosity had been piqued. She had heard of Variants with all sorts of wild and crazy abilities. Her Lieutenant alone could overturn the oceans, just how crazy was that? But, she had never heard of a sensory type Variant. She wondered what Leonel could do.
"Alright, alright. Stop hounding the rookie. We're here."
At first, Leonel thought that the wooden yacht would crash into the side of the massive floating metal cube. But, instead, a tunnel opened up on the side.
Leonel was mystified. He wondered what sort of clever engineering allowed such a thing to happen without the whole compound being flooded with salt water. But, his thoughts didn't have much of a chance to linger on this before he was astonished once more.
The dark tunnel ended and flooded them with light, opening them up to a huge hidden city.
Leonel was quite used to big cities. After all, he traveled through one everyday to get to school barely a year earlier. But this one left him fascinated.
Without the sun, the city had no choice but to rely on high-res panels that simulated the sky. As though realizing this wasn't enough, the light yellow glow of lanterns could be seen dotted all around the skyline, looking like fireflies buzzing in the night.
The city below wasn't nearly as congested either. It had a homey feeling, as though everyone knew everyone else.
The most magical thing, though, was its reminiscence of Venice, Italy, a city Leonel had read about in the past. The large wooden yacht could float through the city with ease, allowing Leonel to take everything in.
It was beautiful.