CHAPTER 206: EX 206. FORCE TIER(III)

This had been the longest day Leon had ever endured. Another world, another sky, yet time itself seemed stretched thin here. The hours refused to end, but he didn’t complain—not when the length of the day was a gift. By the time night brushed the edges of the horizon, the excitement from Leon’s discovery was still high. The fact that he could accumulate ten thousand attack points not once, not twice, but thirty full times in a single day was hard to swallow. After all, that was three hundred thousand points in a single day.

But there was a problem.

Each cycle capped at ten thousand points. Leon never let a single stack roll over. He burned through them before the next cycle began, riding the line all the way to the thirtieth round. It was efficient, yes, but confining. His power was locked in a cycle, like a tide that refused to rise higher than its mark.

Now, with the second dawn whispering into the Trial world of pandora, Leon sat cross-legged on the grass, the pond’s mist curling at his back. His eyes burned with the kind of restless fire only obsession could stoke. He wasn’t done. Not yet.

This time, his plan was different. He would accumulate points for the first cycle, but instead of using it before the next cycle he would hold the ten thousand points inside his attack store and then let the second cycle arrive to see if the system would finally break past that invisible ceiling.

His voice was low, almost a mutter.

"This is just a test. Hope it won’t be a waste."

He exhaled sharply, steadying himself. He’d already accumulated points in the first cycle, and now the second one had arrived. He still had points in his store and wanted to see if he could accumulate more than the 10,000-point limit. His right hand rested against the earth, his index finger twitching as pressure coiled through his body like a spring. Then, with nothing more than a flick upward, he drove that single finger into the ground.

The impact was absurd. The soil buckled. Cracks spiderwebbed out in every direction. At this point, even Leon’s smallest movements carried enough force to reduce boulders to rubble. The system only needed an action strong enough to register as an attack. And his finger more than qualified.

The notification blinked across his vision almost instantly.

[+1 Attack Point]

He snapped open the point tab without hesitation.

[Attack Points: 10,001]

Leon’s lips tugged into a grin. It was not shock, no, not anymore. The system had stopped surprising him a since he entered this trial. But the joy, the thrill of breaking yet another limitation, burned bright in his chest.

"Of course it worked," he murmured, voice thick with satisfaction. "Now... time to accumulate enough points and see if I can push my affinity’s tier higher."

His gaze shifted toward the floating panel, locking onto the single word glowing back at him.

Affinity: Force (I)

His fingers curled into a fist, the anticipation humming through him.

"Let’s see if I can increase you."

****

Leon leaned back on the island, the quiet lap of the pond around him, and for a moment he remembered the first time he had dared to spend points on his affinity. Ten thousand points, gone in an instant. He’d nearly "crippled" himself back then, his body shattering under the strain of awakening Force. The memory still sent a chill through him. It was the reason he’d avoided touching that section of his panel since, burying himself in other excuses, training, grinding, arts. But now? Now those excuses were worthless. Points weren’t scarce anymore. He could gather more in a single day than he used to dream of, and strength... strength was the only thing that mattered.

With a steady breath, Leon summoned his panel.

[Attack Points: 20,000]

His lips curled. "Since it took ten thousand points just to awaken my affinity last time, it makes sense I’ll need double to raise it." His fingers brushed the glowing display. "Put two hundred stat points into affinity."

The counter bled to zero in an instant. Leon closed his eyes, waiting for the pain, the bone-grinding agony of his first awakening, but it never came. Instead, a deep shift rippled through his body, subtle yet undeniable. His blood seemed heavier, and richer. The air bent differently around his skin, like the world itself had acknowledged the change.

When the transformation ebbed, Leon frowned. "Did it... work?"

Not because he couldn’t feel it. He could. But it had been too smooth, too effortless. He pulled the panel open again, eyes narrowing as he fixed on the affinity section.

Affinity: Force (II)

A grin spread across his face, sharp and wild. "So it really is that simple. Double the points for every tier..." His eyes gleamed with something close to madness as the math tumbled in his head. "Seven tiers. I’m already at two. Which means I only need one million, two hundred and forty thousand points."

The number didn’t daunt him, it thrilled him. With the way he was accumulating points now, that impossible mountain looked like nothing more than a climbable hill. Leon leaned forward, teeth flashing as he whispered to himself, "I’ll reach Tier Seven in no time."

****

Leon lay sprawled across the moss of the island, eyes half-open, the blue lights of the cave ceiling reflecting back a hollow look. As his voice slipped out, rough and tired.

"Did I just get scammed...?"

The fourteenth cycle had already passed. Yet his Force Affinity sat stubbornly at Tier (III).

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Back when he first tested it, things had gone smoothly. After reaching Tier (II), he’d waited until the sixth cycle, grinding his way up to forty thousand attack points. He had funneled them in, watched the affinity swell with power, and felt the shift inside his body.

So he had waited again. This time, the fourteenth cycle. Eighty thousand points burned away in an instant. But the screen hadn’t changed. No new tier. No breakthrough. Only silence, his affinity swallowing his hard-earned points like a black hole.

Now, staring blankly at the sky, Leon could only mutter, "Figures... I jumped to conclusions. I didn’t even consider the possibility that the cost rises with every tier."

For a moment, he let the weight of it press him down. Then, with a sharp breath, he pushed himself up, sitting first, then rising to his feet. The lazy dullness in his eyes flickered, hardening into something else.

"I won’t let that discourage me. Tier (III) alone is already a boon. The real question now—" Leon flexed his hands, the air around him faintly vibrating as if responding. "—is what can it do?"

He stood fully, posture straight, the lifeless look gone. The trial world’s air shifted around him, currents tugging in unnatural patterns, bending to something new stirring inside his veins.