If there was ever such a thing as rolling in merit points, Leonel had definitely reached the epitome. The sales his shop reached day in and day out could make even some elders bleed.
Of course, much of these merit points went toward buying more materials to sell even more. However, even with this being the case, the profits alone were astronomical.
There was simply no other place in Valiant City where they could get such cheap high level weapons. It could be said that Leonel single handedly raised the strength of all black and white belts by at least a level. As for blue belts, due to the fact he never sold weapons above the Tier 7 level, their strength remained about the same.
When BLACKSTAR truly began to pick up steam, the Ore Factions made their move, each signing contracts with Leonel. Like this, Leonel didn't even have to worry about acquiring Ores himself. Every week, he would receive a large supply of his own.
It was no surprise, then, that the ones who suffered the most were the King of Ores faction.
Not only had Leonel used their foundation to build the impenetrable BLACKSTAR, but they obviously couldn't sign a contract with Leonel who was now effectively holding what amounted to about a 10-20% share of the Ore Market.
This didn't seem large, but when it was considered that most of the customers the Ore Factions had came from merchants of the Milky Way, the fact Leonel managed to swallow up such a large share was enough to make anyone mad with greed.
All of this said, there was only so large such a small shop could grow. Even setting aside the fact that 70% of all the sold weapons, armors and consumables were crafted by Leonel personally, Valiant Heart was only so large and there were only so many students.
Of course, the consumable and repair market kept the merit points flowing in droves. But even with this accounted for, there was a cap.
This cap, however, wasn't a bad thing. In fact, Leonel had accounted for its existence.
What Leonel wanted the most out of this place was a method to cure Aina. That was his main goal. His so-called revenge against Raylion and Aphestus was nothing more than a blip on his radar, he hardly took them seriously.
In order to do this, he needed to bring the Segmented Cube to Phase Three. If the shop kept growing to infinity, it would be difficult for him to find time to do any of this.
Up to now, the Cube had been slowly absorbing the Fifth Dimensional Force in the atmosphere. However, at this pace, it would still take several years to finish. If it wasn't for Leonel running into a Force Eruption, the Segmented Cube might very well still be in Phase One.
There were two methods that Leonel could think to accomplish this.
The first were Force Crystals. It had to be remembered that the cause of the Force Eruption Leonel faced was a Force Crystal mine. Each Force Crystal presented a high concentration of Force. This might speed up the process.
The issue with this, though, was that Valiant Heart Mountain keeps a tight lid on all Fifth Dimensional resources. Whether it was Ores, Herbs, or anything of the like, students like Leonel would never have a chance to lay hands on them.
And this made sense from Valiant Heart's perspective. After all, what would Fourth Dimensional brats do with such resources? They'd probably end up selling them off to their enemies.
To the elders of Founding Peak, Fifth Dimensional resources were all strategic. It was they that decided how strong or weak their Valiant Heart would be. They couldn't possibly be allowed to reach the hands of others.
Of course… It wasn't necessarily impossible for Leonel to lay hands on a Fifth Dimensional Force Crystal.
He was certain that Valiant Heart had at least one vault of such treasures. In order to access them, he just had to become a Bronze Crafter. He didn't believe he couldn't exchange Fifth Dimensional weapons for these resources. In fact, the elders of Valiant Heart might fight over him just like their students were.
However, there was another issue with this.
In order to practice with Bronze Crafting… Leonel needed Fifth Dimensional Ores.
Theoretically, thanks to his ability, he could Dream Sculpt such Ores and practice in his Dream World. But, to do that, he would need to actually lay eyes on them first.
By now the problem was obvious.
Leonel had a work around, though… If he Dream Sculpted the Bronze Spears in his Spear Domain, then broke them down to the ores that made them up, he could then practice enough in his Dream World to breakthrough. But, the logistics of that were more difficult than they seemed.
Luckily, there was another option.
The more Leonel learned about the Valiant Heart Zone, the more intrigued he became.
According to Kaela, the training rooms that Valiant Heart were so proud of, even the one Leonel took his white belt exam in, were all products of treasures taken from the Zone. The rewards for bringing such things out were most definitely not stingy.
Knowing this, Leonel was already certain in his choice to enter the Valiant Heart Zone. Who knew, maybe he would find something to directly boost the Segmented Cube to Phase Three without having to trade anything in.
BLACKSTAR already ensured that Leonel would reach the merit point minimum for entry into the tournament. This tournament would have spots of entry on the line. So, Leonel's only task at this moment was to make sure he was strong enough to snag these spots.
Though Leonel had won his battle with Arte, it also taught him that he was still beneath the blue belts in raw strength. With something like Aina's life, he would never let the shave be so close.
With those thoughts swirling in his mind, Leonel prepared a training regimen for himself, consulting with the dictionary.
His first step was to raise his Metal Body to its next bottleneck.. And now, he finally had access to more Ores than he knew what to do with to accomplish exactly that.