One might believe No Man's Land was barren. Well, it wouldn't be wrong, but sections of it had plant life. Odd plant life, but still life. Most of these were very fatal to come in contact with. They had grown inside unstable mana and shared such traits. Such as a completely black bush that distorted space around it. It slowly dragged in material nearby. Rocks and things moved often enough on their own that even if it cleared the area where it was growing, it would get more stuff to consume. Should anyone come near it, it would drag them in too.

Kaden was pretty certain materials like that would be valuable, if one could gather them. It would at the very least take a True Magus to contain the spatial effects, even if the plant itself wasn't anywhere their level.

As for animals or anything else, that was another thing. There was none. It was almost eerie. Kaden wasn't certain why living things like plants were an exception. Perhaps it was the ability to think, but why would that provide protection? Perhaps without control the local mana just would settle in and create the unusual plantlife and not destroy them. At least not too soon.

The atmosphere was unusual too. Wind could feel normal, but then it would also sometimes shift to feel different. As if stone or something hard brushed against you. Then later it would feel sticky. This was the first time Kaden quickly moved out of the area. The air simply started sticking on him and it became hard to move and also difficult to breath as the air got stuck inside his mouth and lungs.

Once Kaden got out of the area, the air turned completely normal and the negative effects simply and literally disapeared into thin air. Behind him Kaden saw a valley he had passed turn into transparent ball of something that resembled more slime than anything else.

There had been no warning in his alarms.

"It wasn't big enough change in terms of mana", Kaden thought. "Air viscosity just increased randomly."

There was simply no way to count for all things that could occur. For some reason such fluctuation on mana did not register.

At the level Kaden was at one might survive suffocation for quite a while, but he did not wish to test his limits.

Not long later something else did register. Kaden's alarm started suddenly alert him in full power. In his sensors, it looked like blast of pure mana was coming from underground. It was just passing through everything. Space literally started to vibrate soon after and Kaden was forced to burn his own mana at his limits to rush out in time.

There was no actual sound, but for some reason Kaden felt almost like glass shattered behind him. The space seemed to wrinkle slightly and everything inside the area broke into fragments. Matter simply couldn't handle it as the space probably shattered for a moment and everything inside shattered along with it before the space reformed quickly. Matter, unfortunately, does not reform on its own.

Kaden had himself felt only prickling sensation in his body. He had been far enough not to break apart. The mana still remained heavy around him as he continued rushing away.

"Kill me... killl meeeee!" A voice sounded somewhere near Kaden.

*Thump*Thump*

"Please kill me! Kill me!" The voice begged nearby. Along the thumping sounds Kaden could hear the voice along with others to begging in agony to be killed.

Kaden didn't stop even when he saw shimmering shapes of people nearby. It was as if they were beating against some transparent wall. Their faces were twisted in pain as they were crying and begging for an end.

One of them was near Kaden and it noticed his passing.

"Kill me! PLEASE KILL ME!" It screamed and beat whatever it was holding them. "KILL ME BEFORE IT RETURNS BACK IN THE BURNING DARKNESS!"

Kaden continued to ignore the shapes. There was no telling if they were even real. His sensors only showed high mana, but nothing else. Kaden doubted, even if he wanted to help, there was anything he could do. Perhaps these were some fools that had become trapped inside some spatial distortion. They could perhaps see and even communicate out, but not get out. Perhaps interacting or going too close would trap the one trying to help. There was no reason to take a risk.

Even with all the things Kaden encountered and with no real actual living beings, unless one counted the strange plants and possibly a few living rocks, No Man's Land did not seem dead. Not even in the sections that were completely barren with nothing in there. It wasn't as if he was being watched or anything. There was nothing in Kaden's life sense, but he felt everything was alive. It was somewhat unsettling and yet comforting for some reason.

All in all, no matter whether you stayed on the move or remained still No Man's Land always had more to throw at your way.

Kaden even happened to even see the well known random event of No Man's Land from a distance. It was different to the first surge of mana he encountered that shattered the space. There was only short blip in his sensors and then a section perhaps ten meter radius suddenly disapeared in a vortex. A part of the space in No Man's Land just separated from reality. What was left was roughly a circular empty area.

Stolen novel; please report.

It was known to happen near randomly and if you were caught in it, you probably would not get back, if you survived at all. A True Magus could, but anyone below not. That space might pop up later like bubble bursting on top of your drink, but it could take hundreds of years.

"I believe I'm getting close", Kaden told himself. He had been avoiding and running from random events for hours. "Looks like this place wasn't hidden too far."

This was promising. The collection of the fragments and putting them together had been clearly a test of ability. If you were able to collect all of them, you would get a chance to receive reward for it. If such a reward was hidden so far in No Man's Land that someone at Kaden's strength wouldn't be able to get to it, any possible tests would be beyond him, even if he somehow did get there.

One could feel rather foolish after all the effort, if they werent even able to open an unlocked door since they just weren't strong enough to pull it open.

Eventually Kaden found that the connection that the black pentagon had was turning. It was as if he had passed by the location. He turned around slower and ran around the area. Kaden eventually found he could run a circle and have the connection point somewhere in middle.

Yet, there was nothing as far as he could see.

Kaden stopped and he stood still.

"I hope it hasn't fallen into some dimension fragment", Kaden muttered to himself. "Wherever it is, the connection is strong enough to reach me."

Kaden decided to get closer, but nothing seemed to happen.

Then... *foosh* like wind passing by his ears and the area changed. Suddenly there was a building made of black material next to him. In fact, as far as Kaden could tell, as he had circled around the area he must have ran into the building many times. Also, the space seemed stable. There was no longer that ever present presence of chaotically moving mana around him. It was as if the bubble was not part of No Man's Land.

"I must have stepped into some spatial bubble that protects this place", Kaden surmised as he looked around. He still could see outside and the surrounding No Man's Land, but he was certain, for the time being, he was safe from its unstable nature.

Kaden tapped against the building with his talon.

"This entire building is made out of the same material as the black pentagon", Kaden noted.

His small piece of it had protected him from some specific events. Like a bubble around him. Could it be the building was generating for itself a similar bubble, but just far stronger.

He continued looking around until he found what was clearly a door. It also had a pentagon shaped slot on it. Kaden inserted his black pentagon in the slot. Then the door ejected it out and soon after door seams basically coughed out dust as air finally could flow out as if it had been closed and untouched for ages. It also let out a clanking noise as it came loose and started to move aside revealing stairs going deeper inside.

"This is it", Kaden thought to himself. "There may be danger inside, but I already came this far."

Kaden made his way inside. He stopped for a moment as he heard the door close behind him. He still saw there was a slot for the black pentagon on the inside so he assumed he would be able to exit. He also noted that there were no obvious sources of light, but everything was somehow lit.

At the end of the stairways he found a long corridor. On its sides it had altars in place for each of the major human god. The interesting part was that on the left side there were Sacronan's gods and on the right side there were Saint Empire's gods. At the end of the corridor in the center there were the three higher gods that both sides accepted, Alesarn, Emmiah and Daminur.

Kaden wasn't certain what to think. Part of him wanted to defile these altars, but he wasn't going to do so... at least not yet. Why were they placed here? Either side of humans would hate the other side of the corridor. What would they do? Pray at their own side and move on?

After a little exploration, past the three higher gods, Kaden found a door at the end of the corridor, but it was closed.

There was also in a corner, hidden away a chained altar, clearly set up for the God of Lies. The place was symmetrical and so Kaden checked the same part on the other side. There he discovered another altar. There was a small empty altar there. Basically just a stone table. No sign of it being for any god.

"This all is a test", Kaden said to himself. It was obvious. "Does the builder of this place want to know which god you worship? Is this a choose wrong and you get disintegrated?"

Yet, the setup was weird. Why was there an empty altar? Who would even consider that? Then also every experience Kaden had with the black pentagon and its pieces was that they had protected him from various interactions with gods and their servants.

"I'm willing to bet there is trickery here", Kaden concluded. He looked around more. "What will this even do to me? Whoever made this didn't expect a Cari. Let alone something like me."

Then again, worship of Cari gods was quite different. If there were altars, they werent used the same way as humans did. Cari worshipped their gods by shows of strength and other such means. For sure there were arenas where you could dominate your opponent for the slightest excuse and flaunt your power.

At any rate, Kaden stepped by the empty altar. He felt that made most sense based on his experience. The black fragments had rejected gods influence. This was the truth.

Kaden had no idea what he should do, but as soon as he touched the empty altar long enough a beam of energy shot from somewhere above him. Kaden recoiled in horror, but it was too late.

Yet... nothing happened. The beam enveloped him for a moment, but then went away. Kaden felt nothing. He quickly examined his entire body. Nothing. No strange mana or anything being altered. The energy just passed through him without doing anything.

Clanking noise came next to him.

The closed door was opening.

"I... I must have chosen correctly, but I have no idea what that choice was", Kaden determined as he stepped inside the now open area.

What was inside was clearly someone's home. At least where they stayed for long periods of time. But it was not just home, there was an area reserved for experimenting. A mana forge. Tools for assembling things. Storages. There was even an open area like a training yard.

Someone very wealthy had built the place. It was a luxurious residence with all their potential needs fulfilled.

Some stuff looked old. Very old. Yet, whatever systems were in place, kept the place in top tier condition. There was no dust. No mold. It was all perfectly maintained.

Kaden was actually rather interested what could keep the formations going as long as they must have been considering their age.

"Now what do we have here... a lost bird?" A voice said from somewhere. "I wasn't expecting those arrogant feathery pricks from Frika to be the ones coming here."