Dimensional Descent

Leonel's lip twitched. Even for him, this was a lot. He could tell with a glance that the brightness of the gem on the pendant was likely a function of how much information was within.

'The contract between Aina and Sceio had been about a thousand words. If it was multiplied by the difference in brightness, then that would mean that there would be about 100 billion words since it functions on a logarithmic scale.

'If it was multiplied by a further 500, it wouldn't take me that long at all. In fact, I would probably finish each one in a few minutes, especially since I don't have to read with my eyes.

'But, that wouldn't be too hard for any Fifth Dimensional existence to do. A hundred billion words is only a Petabyte of information. I highly down what looks to be a Sixth Dimension device would max out at that quantity. For this Senior to be acting like this, it has to be even worse than my estimates.'

Leonel took a breath and picked up one of the pendants, restraining his Starry Spirit Domain so that it didn't act on its own again.

"I would be careful if I were you. The Memory Pendants work by projecting all of the information into your mind at once using a small bit of Dream Force. Even Seventh Dimensional existences don't bother memorizing all of these rules, it's easier to just look up exactly what they want when the issue comes up."

"Dream Force?" Leonel blinked.

The young man smiled. "Even if you have some Dream Force affinity, I wouldn't advise it. I already assumed you had some sensory type ability since you dared to ask for this. Only sensory maniacs like you guys would ask for something so ridiculous. But, a small amount of Dream Force affinity isn't going to help you with that amount of information.

"Unless you're a Savant or at least in the Seventh Dimension, I wouldn't advise it."

Hearing these words, Aina began to get a bit worried as well.

"How about we find another way? Or, maybe you could try to narrow down the search a bit?" She probed.

Leonel exhaled a breath, looking at the pendant.

"What's the worst that can happen if I use the Memory Pendant, senior?"

"Well, it isn't life threatening. But, you'd be forced to stand there until your mind processes all of it. Since you're in the Fifth Dimension and have some Dream Force affinity, I'd say it would probably take you anywhere from a week to a month depending on a few factors. So, you can imagine how long it would take to go through all of them…

"Plus, that would only really work if you really needed to find very specific information. It sounds like you want to memorize all of it by your tone. That mountain is even taller. Even though the Dream Force will help you memorize a bit easier than you otherwise would, it's not to the point that you'd become an overnight genius.

"You'll easily become overwhelmed and by the third pendant, you'll already start forgetting things. By the seventh pendant, you likely wouldn't even remember anything from the first.

"And… That doesn't mention the fact that my shift ends pretty soon. I might be willing to let you stand there, but I can't promise that my colleagues will too. Some of them are pricks and entering a state like that is dangerous if there's no one around to protect you."

"I see…" Leonel's gaze narrowed.

He had already decided to gamble. He had forgotten about the new way in which his brain worked. If he really went at this, he believed he could do it.

Leonel's Internal Sight surged. As though expecting this, the young man shook his head. He already knew this would happen, that's why he had said the ignorant were fearless.

Never mind, it didn't matter. He would be harmed a bit and when he came out, he would have learned a lesson.

The young man moved to put the other pendants away. He had only brought them all out for dramatic effect to begin with, but it had fallen on blind eyes since neither Leonel nor Aina seemed to understand what kind of heft these pendants had behind them.

But, before the young man could finish packing away even a single pendant, a sharp intake of breath caught his attention.

He looked up curiously, but his expression changed when he saw that Leonel's gaze had regained its clarity.

"How long has it been?" Leonel asked Aina.

Leonel had already expected that he would find a different person at the counter, so he didn't even look in that direction. The largest reason he had dared to do this was because he trusted that if he was wrong in his evaluation, Aina would protect him.

But, instead of getting an answer, all he got was a beauty looking back at him with a blank expression.

The young man abruptly rose from his seat, not understanding what he was seeing.

If he could wave a hand and say Leonel just faked it, everything would be fine. But the problem was that he most definitely couldn't do that. His own senses were too sharp. He had felt Leonel's Internal Sight sink into that pendant. There was no way to fake that. The moment Internal Sight touched that pendant, the process would start and there was no easy way to extricate yourself without completely reading through its contents.

There was simply no way to fake this.

"Aina?"

"It's… It's been a few seconds, maybe?" Aina's voice tinged with uncertainty.

Leonel blinked for a moment before he grinned ear to ear. This was excellent.

Without hesitation, he took up a second pendant, then a third, then a fourth. He blazed through them one after another, not stopping for a single moment.

Then, just 10 or so minutes later, he had gone through them all, each word, letter and punctuation mark perfectly memorized.