Daniel turned to look at her with a face that only one that had just seen a ghost would have.
Alesia approached Daniel, and once she was right next to him, he pointed with his finger at Krea, the capital of the Krehan empire. He then made his fingertip slide over the map.
Under his touch, mountain ranges, deserts, oceans, kingdoms, and empires were passed. Only after his finger reached the right edge of the map, did a small looking island appear in sight. Above the depiction of this island, a big word had been written in black. The word was 'Nestreia'.
Inside the territory of Nestreia, right in the middle, Daniel was finally able to find the small kingdom of Karalis.
Alesia's eyes opened in surprise. She looked at Daniel and said "That's a.. dozens of years long journey.. Not even my father could pull it out in less than three years.."
Daniel pressed his palms on the table and bent his head forward. He tried to calm himself and catch his breath, but he couldn't help but inhale and exhale rapidly.
"Are you okay?" Asked Alesia with a sorry tone. She didn't know Daniel that well, but based on the few times she had seen him, she thought of him as an incredibly cunning person. Extremely daring and brave.. So, seeing him in that state was like peeking at the other side of the medal for her.
While still looking at the map, Daniel exhaled deeply and said "Thanks for your help.." He then straightened his back once again, rolled the map back up, and put it into his spatial ring.
He then walked towards Alesia, took her hand into his, and teleported away. The moment right before teleporting, he flipped his middle finger at the cartographer.
Alesia had been taken by surprise, but before she could react and move her hand away, she had already reappeared in front of a table. At this table, Heimart and the rest were sitting quietly while enjoying their drinks.
At the edge of the table, were two empty seats with two non-alcoholic beverages waiting for the two of them.
Complete trust between friends. That was something that Alesia had never seen..
His friends had immediately noticed that Daniel had stopped, so, instead of going too far, they sat at a table and waited for Daniel to reach them. They didn't even need to ask him before doing something like that, just like Daniel didn't need to make sure the others would wait for him.
It had all happened very naturally.
While Alesia was busy thinking about the mechanics of the group's relationships, Daniel had already let go of her hand and sat at the table. He then looked at her and said "Aren't you going to sit?"
-----
After a day spent with his group of friends, Daniel entered directly into the ring that Edmund had given to him.
Once inside, the first thing he notices was how dense the space was. It wasn't exactly like being submerged by mud, it was closer to someone sitting on one's chest and preventing them from breathing.
The space wasn't really tangible, and yet it was difficult to move through it.
In the eight hours it took for Daniel to fully comprehend the density of space, he had understood that the reason why he had problems moving. The reason was simple.. Just like not every bit of his body was filled with bones, tissue, and blood, the cells of his body weren't orderly stacked with no space in between them.
In conclusion, the reason why Daniel couldn't move as comfortably within dense space, was because his very own body was partially made out of space of lower density.
He had the same problems moving into dense space that a bubble would have in staying underwater. The only difference, was that gravity hadn't been applied to this dense space.. There was no up to float to. He could only stay still and attempt slow movements.
After comprehending the concept of dense space, Daniel was finally able to thicken the space in the outside world, and dilute the space that came in direct contact with his skin.
He then left the ring, and directly jumped into the locked in which Roley had been forgotten for days.
Right after he entered the locket, his body started to rotate rapidly. Luckily, he had a comprehension of space that was approaching the sixty percent, so, he was able to quickly stop the violent motion by stabilizing the space immediately around himself.
In the void, he could feel fragments of space that moved in all directions, like shards of glass that kept crashing, shattering and reforming. He could enter each of this shards, and once in, he would end up thousands of meters away from the original spot.
It was a constant moving labyrinth.
"No wonder Roley was so pissed when I got him out" Muttered Daniel in his mind.
Suddenly, he heard a desperate voice coming from within his head. It said "For the love of my tree father!!! Get out of this hell as soon as you can!"
"Will I ever learn why you hate space so much?" Asked Daniel with a derisory tone. He then added "Calm down.. I won't let myself be caught into unstable space.. I will only study it for a few hours.. Hang in there."
Daniel wasn't lying. The first thing he did after stabilizing the space around himself and installing the time sphere, was to create a diamond sphere with earth essence and throw it towards one of the fragments of unstable space.
The very moment the large diamond touched the fragment of space, the diamond immediately disappeared and reappeared a hundred meters from Daniel. It was moving upwards, but after it entered another fragment, it disappeared once again about ten meters underneath Daniel.
The large diamond kept teleporting over and over again, until suddenly, before Daniel could even react, the diamond had appeared just twenty centimeters away from the time sphere, and it was going directly towards it.
It hit it the very next moment, forcing it to fly towards one of the fragments of chaotic space.
Daniel stretched his hand in an attempt to take the sphere back, but before he managed to do that, the sphere had entered into a fragment of space, and teleported to a random point within the pocket dimension. He tried many times to stabilize the space in front of the time sphere, but unfortunately, he was never fast enough, and would end up seeing the sphere teleported once again.
After a few dozens of failed attempts, Daniel decided to study the unstable space instead of trying to catch the sphere.
It was only after five hours, that he was able to comprehend not one, but two concepts of space.
The first concept of space Daniel had comprehended was, of course, unstable space.
Fragmented space, unable to join together, would clash, shift and modify its function. It was like a billion pieces puzzle..
The easiest way to adjust unstable space, was to put the fragments back in order. But that required an immense amount of spiritual essence and control over space essence.
It was just like trying to stop water by controlling its essence with one's spirit. It would work for a river, but if an oceanic wave was going to crash against the cultivator, then he would have no chances to stop it.
The second concept he had comprehended, was the concept of portals.
The fragments of unstable space were nothing more than small portals with random and ever changing destinations. Just because the destinations were difficult to predict, it didn't mean that the act of creating and opening a portal that lead to another point in space couldn't be learned from it.
The concept of portals was much different from the concept of teleportation. Teleportations was instantaneous, but had risks. Like ending up into a wall at a point in cultivation in which teleporting along with the space around oneself was impossible.
On the other hand, the concept of portals was the idea of opening a rift in space that worked as passage between two different points in space.
Other people, and even items could move through.
The pro of this method of transportation, was that one didn't risk to end up into a wall by mistake. The con of this method, was that it took a fraction of time for one to form a portal and enter it.. So it wasn't exactly instantaneous.
After learning both of these concepts of space, Daniel localized the time sphere, and just as it was about to come into contact with another fragment of space and teleport elsewhere, he took control over that fragment of space and created a portal that lead right in front of him.
He moved his hand right in front of his chest, and opened it so that the back of his hand would face him.
The next moment, the time sphere appeared in front of him, and immediately landed into his hand.
Daniel's current comprehension of space, after learning the three concepts of portals, density, and instability, had surpassed Edmunds very own understanding.
He left the locket.
One day and thirteen hours had passed since the last stage of the gathering had ended, and he wanted to be rested and on his best shape for what he believed to be the most important stage of the event. So, he directly went to sleep.
He woke up the next morning to the sound of knocking.
After getting out of bed, he went to open the door while still half naked.
Behind the door, just like he had expected, was Edmund. Unfortunately, next to him was also his daughter Alesia, which quickly looked away and said with an angry tone "Is this that trick that boys use to let girls see them naked and claim innocence afterwards?"
Daniel looked at her embarrassed state and with a slight smirk, he responded "You mean I should have been fully naked? My apologies, it's the first time I use the trick."
"Alright brat.. Enough with this. Get dressed, before I teleport you into the square in your underwear." Barked the irritated Edmund.
After going back into the room and putting on some clean clothes, Daniel opened the door once more, but before Edmund could teleport him, he said "Mind if we go my way? I've been itching to try this."
Edmund looked back at him and said with a confused and still irritated tone "Try what?"
Daniel turned to look at an empty spot of his room, then, with a wave of his hand, a rift in space started to force open.
On the other side, the three could see the large square. And in it, the multiple disciples and masters that were looking at the rift with shock and curiosity.
The usually composed Edmund looked back at Daniel, and with a burst of excitement, he said "How the fuck did you learn the concept of portals!?!?"
Alesia was shocked. She had seen in this state before, and it happened whenever her father comprehended a new portion of space essence.
"You have to teach me that.. You have to!" Said Edmund excitedly.
But before he could say anything else, Daniel looked back at him with a cheeky smile and said "Our agreement never said that I had to teach you anything.."
"You can keep the time sphere." Responded Edmund plainly.
"DEAL!"
-----
Back in the square, the dozens of disciples were still staring at the large drift that had appeared out of the blue.
Before long, three silhouettes appeared from the other side. These three people were, of course, Daniel, Edmund, and Alesia.
From up in the balconies, the various masters of spatial essence looked at Edmund with envy and muttered "He comprehended the concept of portals.."
Edmund felt slightly embarrassed by hearing the other's words, but since he would actually learn it soon, he didn't bother with correcting them.