Well, in all honesty did you see this abuse of the junction system your first time playing through it. Honestly, I didn't properly get the junction system until I was at the Tomb of the Unknown King. I also didn't know how to get a high SeeD rank, I think I got a 6. How did you get a 15 by the way, the highest I've ever got was 10? And, you are not very effectively leveling up. There is a trick to this game where you keep your characters at their starting levels and only start leveling up when you have access to the Str, Mag, Vit and Spr Bonus abilities. If you just level up, especially in the training center before you go to Timber, then you miss a lot of magic and let the other monsters get insanely strong while you only get a little more strong. You might want it that way, but I'm just saying. And you can get the Lionheart by the end of disc 1, that's not that big a deal, Lionheart doesn't happen all to often anyway. Besides, I can get the Punishment before going on the SeeD Exam.