It was rather tedious process to restore his body to a perfect state. It took a few days to make immediate fixes. Kaden himself expected it to take a few weeks to actually complete it perfectly, but few days took him to acceptable state.
Bits and pieces of foreign harmful mana lingered in between whatever mana made up Kaden's body. He had to find each and every one of them and then either remove it or make it his. Some things could be learned by taking control of such foreign mana, but Kaden decided it was hardly worth the effort. It wasn't anything special. Nothing to learn that Kaden wouldn't be able to learn better and quicker himself, if he so chose to. Eventually he would, but not now.
Instead while he healed his mana body, he looked what his slaves were doing.
Northwinds managed to put themselves into their new political place. Those suporting the emperor's cousin who was intending to sit on the throne instead were happy to receive more support to their cause. It was very easy. It was usual noble dealings with each other. There was nothing odd about it.
As for Nervin. He almost died. Some criminals suddenly came for him, but he was able to defeat them instead. Kaden was pretty sure this was the case only because of the things he gave him. From his point of view Kaden could not be certain whether these people were just some random thugs that decided to get a reward for killing Nervin or whether someone had directly sent them.
Considering quality of their weapons and armor, Kaden doubted they were sent by anyone. They were just some criminals, at best lightly affiliated with Shadow Pact.
Nervin was still alive, but he had now attracted attention. More would come after him. Yet, he had shown power, his backing, it seemed not everyone who noticed him were hostile, but some wanted to work for him. Whether they were doing that to just take stuff from Nervin before he died or not remained to be seen. Nervin would have to decide who to trust.
"Speaking of attracting attention", Kaden muttered to himself. "I should make an appearance. Perhaps I should make that small personal bubble of space in between dimensions. I need to appear to be acting normally."
Kaden felt his place in the current world was still too weak. He had been strong when he did not yet have a mana body. Now he was at bottom. No real contacts. He lacked understanding of things. Worst part was that a lot of people were looking at him. Kaden did not need the attention.
"I need to arrange a little show", Kaden thought to himself. "I'm a new True Magus and I need to look the part. My real actions need to be covert and I need people to be less suspicious of me."
Usually True Magi likely did very little when they were at Kaden's position. Most were working for the church so they likely trained them and sent them to minor missions to acclimatize. Kaden had no such things to do... at least not yet. Things that True Magus would care about were equally rare as True Magi. At worst Kaden decided he would have to take some risks, but for now he would appear benign and normal.
Kaden left Northwind's hideout.
He then passingly confirmed Fanin was getting well along with all the neccessary people. Indeed, that part was going fine. It had been very clear from his previous observations, but he wanted to confirm it. Nobles could act very different manner than what they really thought behind the facade and they could easily put up an act to take advantage of Fanin.
Outside of the Northwind's estate, he slipped into the void between dimensions.
"Lets see", Kaden muttered to himself. "To create a space here, I must place mana here, concepts, that is, to support existence and the use that to create a bubble."
Such a space was ... less than ordinary space. It could collapse, if struck hard enough. The more mana and the more complete that mixture of mana was, the stronger the space. He did not need it to be perfect. Just a place where he could do less important things. Mostly just for show.
Kaden also doubted he would need to ask permissions or anything to place a bubble of space into the void. Spatially the void was unusual. There were obvious distances, but those distances seemed to matter less. One could easily fit more in an area that it might seem.
Even if someone came to complain to him about it, he could just consume the mana and move it elsewhere while the nascent spatial bubble would collapse on it own.
The method was essentially imitating the real physical world. For a moment he pondered what had held the real space together before the cataclysm and appearance of mana. Ancients had not known about mana so Kaden did not have any special knowledge from that source.
Anyway, discarding random thoughts, at the moment, Kaden only wanted to be seen. That was the purpose of what Kaden hoped to achieve.
Kaden had to experiment only slightly before he was able to form a space. It wasn't exactly hard, but it took quite a bit of effort. The feeling was like one could feel if they were lifting weights. There was a first step that took greater effort to produce the seed of the space. Then expanding that was far easier, but just initially. Very quickly, the bigger the space was, the more it 'weighed'. Kaden stopped as soon as he realized that.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"I don't need others to approximate my strength by the size of this space", Kaden thought to himself.
It was large enough to fit in a small place where he could do things. He did not intend to store anything there nor stay there more than for just show. That would include crafting some ordinary things and perhaps cultivation of mana.
The outer boundaries of the small space were transparent. He could look into the void, even if it did look somewhat distorted. Others could also look in.
This was not odd as it seemed most of the other spaces True Magi built and the few larger ones among them, built by Archmagi, were also see through. Many of these other spaces did include barriers that also blocked sight of some section, but not entirely.
"Hmph, I doubt these places, even the more defended ones, are important to their owners", Kaden assumed as he sat in his space and looked around. "Just like mine, they likely contain nothing valuable. Otherwise they wouldn't be here to be found easily."
Indeed, it was likely for show. To let others see your wealth and power. A place where you would go to lounge. Hold meetings. Put up things for others to see 'look what I have'.
"Hmmm, wealth", Kaden wondered that part for a moment. "I haven't really been to temple of Stefinos for a long while. Another accursed god, but one that I can use. I wonder what kind of special services they offer to True Magi."
Kaden was pretty sure there would be nothing truly important, but they would advertise some. Those things would come at a cost.
Kaden intended to toss out one of the extremely high grade mana crystals he no longer needed. That should give him enough funds to get some small place built.
There were a few places Kaden could use depending on his needs. He wanted this new bubble of space to be the lowest tier place where he could be. Nothing hidden. His appearance was normal.
The second place was Northwinds hideout. It wasn't exactly True Magus grade, but with some formations it was good enough. Murders and such could be arranged there. All the things Kaden did not want to show anyone.
The third place was Zeruek's place in the No Man's Land. That was essentially a fortress. Place where he would go if... when things eventually got dangerous and he would need to disappear.
"Yet, as it is I have no direction", Kaden had to admit. "Before I could just go out and have general idea how to grow. There is a leap in rarity of such things from Condensation stage to True Magus."
Things worth it for True Magi just were not easy to find.
Best Kaden could immediately think was to go fight again. Killing a True Magus and then likely consuming whatever mana made up them would be best. Such dense ordered mana would be quick and easy to understand and make himself more powerful. Yet, his latest effort, as quick as it had been, had left damage he had needed to repair. Doing so over and over was going to be inefficient and yet likely the most common path most True Magi followed.
This was one of the reasons Kaden was willing to look in places he didnt usually look at, such as temple of Stefinos. There were some other ideas he had too, but those he would pick, if the rest did not work out.
With the spatial bubble stable, Kaden decided to go look for building materials to place inside.
Stefinos's temple had changed very little since Kaden had last seen it. Only its adverts seemed to change regularly. Kaden quickly noted that inside the void there was another entrance. A small space connected to the space inside the temple in real space.
A special entrance for True Magi?
It made sense. Normal people needed to walk in the main entrance, but True Magi and higher did not need to bother. Kaden used that way instead.
As soon as he stepped inside, a group of Stefinos's priests at Condensation stage came out with smiles.
"How may we assist a valued customer", one of them started.
"I am building a place for myself in the void", Kaden stated. "I need building materials. Nothing fancy." Then he pulled out the mana crystal he intended to sell. "This should be more than enough, yes?"
The priests eyes lit up. Extreme greed was obvious.
"Of course, Lord True Magus!" The priests said almost in unison.
"While you are at that, since I only recently became a True Magus, I want to see what your temple offers to someone like me", Kaden added.
The experience was very different since the last time Kaden visited the temple. The priests were not even trying to hide their schemes, but nor were they too outrageous. They offered Kaden many supportive deals and also more things, if he did things for them. A True Magus could acquire some very valuable items that none below them could. Exactly such things as the extremely high grade mana crystal Kaden was selling.
Kaden agreed to none of them, but this did not deter the greedy priests. There seemed to always be more offers and things they could give for money or services.
While the priests let Kaden look at lists of things being sold for a moment, he quickly noted that the apartus showin the things was now vastly more complex. Even before there had been lists of things one could simply buy. Now the number of categories had multiplied and each of them contained sub categories for rare things, some of which were likely completely secret until you were a True Magus. Even some rather questionable things were being sold. Kaden knew there was a temple even in Frika. Some of the things likely came from there. There were requests too. You needed something and you could place a reward for it. The system would even facilitate direct trades safely between True Magi and so on. Temple would take its cut, but it would not cheat you and it would be safe.
The priests only stopped offering deals by the time Kaden stuffed his building materials inside his bag. He wondered for a moment that he could likely expand it or even make more of such bags. He remembered how valuable they were before. Expanding it was likely far easier since making another bag would require some materials, but existing space could be adjusted by improving formations that controlled it and the space he had already been able to grow. Kaden was certain he could improve them.
This came to his mind as he was barely able to fit building materials into his bag and the priests started to offer him selection of better ones once they noticed the problem.
The prices were in range of what True Magus could and would pay, but it did not change the fact that spatial bags were still rather costly. Not all True Magi could do what Kaden thought he would be able to do.
Kaden slipped back into the void between dimensions and returned to his personal space. There was a visitor waiting.