A few minutes out from where they fought the goblins was a quiet zone, a zone that was much more alive than he'd thought. He needed to concentrate in order to sense what was wrong with the space around him, but when he did, it was impossible to ignore. The further inside he looked, the more the space looked fragmented, unstable.

He was thoroughly horrified at what he saw, but... this was the most he was able to glimpse of spatial activity. The air deeper inside was more and more active with space actively twisting and breaking. It was as dangerous as it was breathtaking.

Twisting currents broke against each other, forming cracks where space touched upon reality. What his senses perceived as space was lost in the currents, yet it was only a different flavor of the same thing. When he realized that, his perception changed.

It was easier to sense this flavor of ether because of how often it changed. If space was normally like an immovable rock, this was like raging lava.

The 'immovable rock' was everywhere and impossible to differentiate from normal rocks and he didn't even want to know how he would have managed to sense space without an area like this, or his title.

With hesitant steps he walked further inside the unstable space, feeling the currents grow wilder and stronger. When the feeling grew too much he took a step back and sat down. He was still some way from where the space cracked and reformed, but this close even if he closed his eyes he was able to feel how unstable the space was.

He had no idea how to use his spatial affinity, but even just being in this space was doing wonders for his affinity sense.

Affinity Sense has grown to level 6!

It was already higher level than his Ether Sense and not even a day had passed since he'd gotten the skill. Just a few minutes later the skill grew to level 7. From that alone he knew he wasn't leaving until he was able to use his magic.

He could feel there was nuance in the way space formed cracks, spread and sealed back up. What was happening in this area was not natural and the world was fighting back, trying to restore order.

It felt almost like a game trying to predict where space would crack next based on how it behaved.

Sensing the space around him was much easier than he expected, and he was slowly able to differentiate what he assumed to be spatial ether. The level of his skill, and the skill growth seemed to agree that he was on the right track.

He had no idea how long it would take him to level up Affinity Sense without the title all the way to max, but as it stood a few more hours would do the trick. He guessed in a highly advanced society people would have special rooms to make leveling these skills easier, a list of easily attainable titles and a high-leveled person to answer each and any question they might have, or at least the records of one.

He wasn't very much a book reader back on Earth, but he would kill for a library on this one.

He made himself comfortable, barely noticing when the wolf sat next to him. Her fur stood on its edge and her eyes darted from tree to tree, yet she didn't leave. She stood protectively next to him, not letting her guard down.

Now that he had some time to think, he needed a name for his friend; calling her 'the wolf' all the time didn't sit right by him. He was thinking about a suitable name to call her in his mind when he saw her moving in front of him. Edel could do it... from the german word Edelweiss. It matched her fur and likeness.

Before she got too far he bit her fur, not allowing her to move forward. He couldn't find another way to communicate just how dangerous that was. She was startled for a moment, and looking back at him then at the seemingly normal forest in front of her, she stopped. She didn't move back, however, remaining in front of Kiel.

Letting out a sigh of relief that she wasn't going to go any further at least, he continued focusing on the twisting currents.

He didn't know how much time passed as he lost himself staring at the currents of space when he suddenly felt a jolt pass through his entire body, waking him up from his trance.

You have maxed out your skill, Affinity Sense! You have gained +3 in the Spirit attribute, you have formed a connection with your strongest affinity.

This time when he pushed with his will to calm the space around him, the currents eased. He felt like a superhero altering reality with his will alone. He closed his eyes, focusing only on his spatial sense which had improved massively as his affinity sense increased in level. He could see Edel sitting in front of him, sometimes obscured by space moving weirdly, but he was seeing with his eyes closed. Opening his eyes that sense disappeared like trying to focus on two different things at the same time, he tried to stop himself from jumping in excitement, but it was hard to remain calm.

While he couldn't manipulate the ether around him, he had confidence it was only a matter of time.

Taking a look at his Ether Sense, he was pleasantly surprised to see the skill already at level 8. If Affinity Sense gave him half the pieces for the puzzle, he was expecting Ether Sense to give him the other half.

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Unfortunately, Ether Sense was leveling slower than his Affinity Sense and he didn't want to stay here looking at the ether all night long, especially now that he'd been broken out of his concentration.

On the other hand, he was very close to finally being able to wield magic. He had his doubts whether someone needed both Ether Sense and Affinity Sense maxed in order to cast magic, but considering how much more complex space was compared to Earth affinities, it might as well be the case for him.

Also, this space was custom tailored to his needs. Sure it was dangerous, but that was so long as he didn't do what he was planning on doing. Going further inside to test drive his new ability.

He poked the now extremely bored wolf on the nose. Meowing at her to stay put, he marched forward.

Edel of course had her protests. He came back and couldn't help but pat her head with his paws. He wouldn't let her follow him further inside, but neither would he give up on this space.

Perhaps he could play this safe and stay in the outer region slowly leveling up his Ether Sense, even as it was getting harder to do so. Perhaps that would even be enough to cast spatial magic in the future.

But if he'd learnt one thing from the few days in this world, risk was rewarded. For anyone else perhaps the risk wasn't worth it, but when his affinity was without a doubt spatial, the scales balanced out.

With each step further inside the space the currents grew stronger. The spatial ether drowned out almost everything else to the point he was scared of a spell forming out of thin air and dragging him along with it.

Looking at the trees next to him, he'd long since passed the point where trees could remain intact from the disturbance in space. At this point he actively needed to calm down the space around him to make sure he didn't end up in pieces.

It was hard, like using a part of your brain you didn't know you could use. He was certain that with some practice this would become second nature, but currently it was taking all of his concentration to make sure nothing happened in the space around him.

It wasn't, however, entirely without gain. The ether here was so rich it felt like he was swimming in it.

Just by breathing he could feel his body growing stronger, the pain from his recovering body becoming lighter and even the tiredness that had begun to creep in after pushing his mind for so long started to ease up.

Unfortunately, however, staying this deep in the quiet zone was not possible for the current him. Every second that passed he had to expend more and more energy to prevent the space around him from tearing him into pieces.

He didn't know what was causing space to be torn apart in so many regions around the forest, only that it was generating more and more energy to do so. His idea of what was going on was pretty vague, so he decided on a gamble.

He gave up on the mental image of calming the space down.

Instantly a tear in space opened up a few meters away from him, but he didn't stop. His previous image was too broad. His skill said he had a connection with spatial affinity, so he wondered how far could he push that connection?

Instead of stopping the next crack, he pushed with his will to break the space around it and away from him. The crack quickly expanded as a result and he lost control of it as it grew from a few inches to a few meters, felling three trees in the process, before it too closed back up in a sudden rush of ether.

That was exhilarating, but it wasn't what he wanted to do. Also, too dangerous even for his standards.

After that he retreated to a place where there wasn't a crack forming every half a second. The spatial currents here were more manageable and less likely to tear him apart for looking at them wrong.

Where space was weak, he saw the crack forming and focused entirely on that, ignoring the raging currents passing by him. With little effort he assisted the space in closing back the very next instant. The timing was a lot closer than he'd like, but it was also a lot less taxing on his willpower.

This time he felt where the space was weakened from the raging currents and reinforced it with his will before it resulted in a crack. That was a little more taxing, but he'd managed to successfully prevent a crack from forming in the first place, which was a better method of not getting shredded into pieces.

All that he was missing was a connection to the ether itself and he knew how he could use his spatial affinity.

It turned out that in a region where he was practically bathing in ether, it sped up the leveling process, who could have guessed. It wasn't that he could see more details about the ether, but he could follow its rapid movements a lot better after the first few minutes.

When he maxed his Ether Sense his brain was barely working even though it took less time than he was expecting. Even the rich ether was barely helping him any more.

You have maxed out your skill, Ether Sense! You have gained +3 in the Spirit attribute, you have formed a connection with the Ether of the world.

That gave him a much needed boost and he quickly left the inner regions of the quiet zone. That had been enough excitement for a lifetime, but it was probably a normal Tuesday for this world.

When he drew the ether in his body next, he could sense so much more. When the connection between his body and the ether of the world formed, he could now sense a pool of ether inside of him, all of which had a unique gravity to it. It felt a lot more malleable to his will which made using it possible even with a searing headache.

Forgetting his exhaustion, he drew upon that ether. Manipulating it was a matter of intent and will, something he honed for hours on end inside the tumultuous space. He felt the ether slowly diffuse into his body, and he felt lighter than ever. Taking a simple step, all that was in his mind was the idea of moving. Suddenly he felt resistance, as if the space itself was holding him back.

So he did what any reasonable cat would do, he doubled down. Space around him weakened and suddenly the resistance was gone, as was he. His body was thrown against a tree a few meters away, a distance he remembered not traveling with his feet.

Opening his eyes again, he realized what had just happened and he could barely keep a smile from forming on his face, "That will take some getting used to though..." He said to himself, not allowing himself to smile until he saw his status window.

The possibilities were endless, but using ether was like learning how to control a new limb. It took entirely too much effort to consider doing multiple things at once, and it was also fairly unpredictable. But for all of its faults, he now knew why the goblin mages were so respected.

Name - Kiel

Level - 9

Titles - Traveler, Indomitable

Body - 15

Mind - 14

Spirit - 24

Skills - Body Adaptation (Lvl 10) [Max], Climbing (Lvl 5), Ether Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Affinity Sense (Lvl 10) [Max], Spatial Manipulation (Lvl 3), Spatial Rend (Lvl 0)

This time he did smile, though his face didn't show it.

When he reached the place where Edel was supposed to be waiting alone, however, he found something unexpected waiting for him as well. A trio of humans had wandered into the quiet zone and were currently fighting against her.

Worse yet, they were winning.