Leonel stepped out of the cottage, looking out into the world with a calm expression.

They seemed to be located in the middle of nowhere, and there weren't any landscapes to be found.

The one thing that this Zone couldn't suppress was his Dream Force. His Dream Force had reached a Realm where it had stepped outside the bounds of reason.

It had to be remembered that Zones were entirely constructed from Dream Force. This was something that Leonel had learned during his time in the Void Palace of the Dimensional Verse.

He had thought that maybe things would be different here, but that didn't seem to be the case. It was stronger Dream Force, to be sure... but still Dream Force nonetheless. He remembered being highly impressed with the ability of Sub-Dimensional Zones to replicate everything before. But now, he didn't find it to be very shocking at all. After all, his Ability Index had evolved to the point that he could do the same.

It just wasn't worth the stamina drain. Or, rather, he hadn't come up with a method that would otherwise make it worthwhile.

There was no doubt that having access to his Dream Force like this gave him a great advantage, but he knew that things wouldn't be so easy.

For one, though he did have access to his Dream Force, it still wasn't to the same level as it had been in the past. It was highly limited, and he could only analyze small regions.

Second, the Regulator most certainly wouldn't be happy. With just the smallest uses, he could feel an aura pressing down on him. The result was him using up his stamina at a shocking degree of speed.

This wasn't something that Leonel was used to. He practically never considered his mental stamina at all because it was so shocking. But this time around, he would have

to.

That said, he had already figured out several things in just a few moments. Who

needed an analysis device when his own mind was the analysis?

The first leg of this Zone should be related to awakening Forces.

The question was how.

There were two paths that Leonel could see. The first was to essentially take the path of the Ancestors and reforge a Weapon Force.

Due to the situation of the Zone, this would be much easier than it was in the past. This wasn't just because any Weapon Force master would be intimately familiar with

the Weapon Force in question, but also because the Zone seemed to loosen the restrictions on this path somewhat.

Of course, this was still easier said than done.

For example, a race car driver might be intimately familiar with their car, and might even be able to do some complex repairs should the situation call for it. However, if you asked them to build a new car from scratch, how many could?

An even better example might be a huge fan of a novel. They might know the story in and out, and be able to answer any of even the most obscure questions someone might have. But if you asked them to rewrite the story from memory, would they be able to do it?

This was the situation they all found themselves in now.

Although Existence wouldn't be here to restrict them, reforging their Weapon Forces as though they were the original creators was far easier said than done.

The worst part was that many would succeed, but only in part. They wouldn't be able to grasp the essence that made their Weapon Forces so powerful in the first place, so they would be at a disadvantage against those that could understand it to a deeper level.

This would be what decided the weak and the strong in this world.

That said, there was also the second path that Leonel had mentioned.

In this path, one would aim not for a Weapon Force, but a normal Force. However, the Regulator didn't make it easy.

If one wanted to succeed, they would need to basically forge the first. Innate Nodes of this era as well.

Both Paths were extremely difficult, but the second was especially so.

There were probably several taking part in this Trial who had forged Innate Nodes for themselves before. But how many had done so without a world of resources at their fingertips?

Even Leonel had only managed to forge his Valiant Heart Innate Node because he raided his grandfather's treasury. If not for this, it would have taken him decades, if not centuries, to gather up everything he needed.

Where were you going to find such resources in a Third Dimensional World like this one?

The answer was that you couldn't.

So, you would have to make up for a lack of resources with comprehension, and that would mean taking an even tougher path than the one of Weapon Forces.

This was clearly meant to only be a secondary path for those especially confident in themselves, an extra method of growing stronger and rising to the top of this world to become the one true Ancestor of their Weapon Force.

On top of all of that, compared to Weapon Forces that were naturally forged from simpler Forces to combine into something more complex, normal Forces were naturally of one piece. Although they too were forged of many simpler laws, because they normally came as a package deal, teasing apart the intricacies was much more difficult.

This was why treasures were often relied on, because they could take on the burden themselves.

In fact, Leonel had cheated even further, using three Innate Nodes that he already had in his body on top of treasures.

This truly illustrated the sort of tall task the Idol Battlefield was expecting. But even

SO...

Leonel's advantage was still firmly there.

That was because he wasn't fumbling around like everyone else, and he already had

access to his most important Force.

That only left one question...

What was a Valiant Heart?