"It turned out that the Qi produced by the stones was not the same as what came from the slain monsters. It was as if the Qi ignited when reacting with the energy contained in the stones. This fiery Qi was challenging to absorb and could cause serious harm if absorbed in large quantities.

Teseu took several breaks between absorption sessions but had the feeling that some damage was accumulating, mainly coming from his meridians.

So, with a certain regret, he decided to stop and return to Earth. It had been almost 5 hours since he arrived here, and his sister must be worried since he apparently goes into a coma when traveling between worlds.

He picked up an obsidian he had already used as proof and entered meditation while infusing Qi into the stone in his right hand.

In the blink of an eye, the cell was empty, leaving only a pile of navy-blue stones hidden in a corner.

***

After waking up and explaining his new situation to his sister, Teseu finally realized a significant time discrepancy between the time spent on Earth and the other world.

Of course, he had suspected that something like this was happening, but he never cared enough to measure this distortion precisely.

"So, you spent about five hours there, while here it's been about 30 minutes; that's a distortion of 1/10. Every second here on Earth is equivalent to ten seconds in that other world," Amélia analyzed.

"Now that I think about it, it has always been like this; I was just too focused on other things to notice," Teseu said, with a wry smile.

"What are you going to do now? I don't think it's a good idea to return to that 'obsidian cell.' If they find out you're consuming your stones to become stronger, they might end up killing you."

"I don't think that's the case; they seemed to think that place would somehow restrain me. Apparently, these marble Golems use a form of mystical energy based on runes, which looks entirely different from the Qi I use. They probably want to study my Qi instead of killing me, and I can use this chance to become stronger. If they try to torture me or something, I simply return here and never set foot in that hotel again... Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Unfortunately, I can't properly beat you, and that's making me furious! You're too careless! What if these Golems find a way to trap you there? What if they prevent you from sleeping, meditating, or whatever? Even worse, what if they kill you? Do you die here too?"

"No, but the path to that reality unravels, and I lose all the progress I've made since the last time I was here."

"What?"

"What?"

"How do you know this?"

"I don't know; the information just popped into my mind at this moment."

"Has this happened before?"

"Well, there have been a few times when I had a feeling of right and wrong, but it never went as far as giving me such detailed information." Teseu was deeply intrigued now.

"If it wasn't like this before, what changed?"

Teseu sat in a lotus position and, after closing his eyes, replied, "I don't know, but I'll try to find out."

He pulled his consciousness inside his body and began inspecting his cultivation progress. He was now very close to completing the 4th stage, but strangely, his brain wasn't saturated with Qi as he thought it would be. He could feel that there was another energy stored in his brain.

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"Mana," he whispered the word that came to his mind. 'It's quite likely that, in my haste, I absorbed the Qi from the stones prematurely and ended up absorbing mana too,' he thought.

Teseu wanted to know more. He wanted to understand how this information sprouted in his mind. It was the same feeling as remembering something you didn't even know you knew, like you've hit your head and forgotten years of your life, but suddenly you remember commenting on the weather, and a stranger on the street agreed with you. You don't know what you commented on or why you were on the street that day; you just know that it happened, and that's it.

So, he delved deeper into this feeling. He focused his awareness into the depths of his mind until he couldn't hear anything around him, not even his own breathing. Suddenly, everything went black.

Teseu found himself in a completely dark and empty place, but he could still see his own body, or was it his consciousness's body?

Looking down, he noticed he was standing in water, like a certain messiah from a certain religion.

The water was calm; he walked for a few minutes but found nothing and no one. He eventually stopped and began inspecting the water. He crouched down and reached out to scoop some, but the water quickly responded to his intention, and a small bubble floated toward him, landing in his hand.

Teseu got excited and started playing with the water sphere, and soon several bubbles of crystal-clear water were swirling around him. However, when Teseu turned his attention to the ground with the intention of creating a whirlpool, he stopped.

This place had no source of light, but he could see himself and his reflection... For some reason, his reflection looked wrong.

"It's almost as if it's analyzing and staring at me... wait, is it mocking me?"

"What the hell!" When his shadow showed a smile he wasn't expecting, Teseu's concentration was disrupted, and he woke up...

To his dismay, he ended up waking up in the other world, facing a beauty with sapphire-like eyes glowing with mana, wearing a white dress with a Greek armor design, and skin made of the purest white marble.

The golem queen was right in front of him, holding one of the stones he had used before. Upon noticing Teseu's sudden reappearance, her lips formed a modest smile.

"Hello, little one. I thought you had escaped. Why did you come back?" The queen spoke in a strange language, but... he could understand!

Before he could respond, the queen continued. "I can finally sense some mana coming from you. What did you do? Absorbing raw mana from these obsidian restraints should be impossible. How did you do it?" She asked, slowly approaching Teseu.

"Wa-wait!" He ended up shouting a little too loudly and quickly corrected himself. "Sorry, just give me some time to breathe." He stood up and sat on the stone bed. He was still trying to recover from what happened in his mind; having his consciousness inside his own mind required a lot of effort and concentration. His vision was spinning, and he needed some time to rest, but the queen's piercing gaze wasn't helping.

"Are you alone?" He asked after taking a deep breath.

"Yes, I sent everyone away so we could talk in private."

"But you're a queen; shouldn't you have a strong and trustworthy guard who follows and protects you at all times and doesn't say a word unless necessary?" Teseu asked, half joking and half serious. He was feeling a bit intimidated by the beauty of this golem queen and wanted to ease some of the tension in the air.

"You seem

familiar with monarchic traditions," she narrowed her eyes. "And yes, I do have one. Sir Gael is recovering from an injury and will soon return to his duty."

"I see..."

"More importantly," she interrupted. "As a humble human like you, how did you manage to enter the palace's dome, bypass all the barriers while they were active, get caught, put in the mana-restriction dungeon, and then somehow disappear and reappear as if unaffected?"

"Well, to be honest, I didn't even understand half of what you said, but if what I understood is correct, I can only do this because I'm not from this world. I come from one where mana doesn't exist, but a strange event gave me the ability to travel through space-time, and here I am." Teseu tried to be as honest as possible; he didn't want to reveal everything about his situation, but he also didn't want to lie. Once again, his intuition told him that the stone woman could discern the truth, so he didn't take any risks.

The queen was looking at him coldly as he spoke and remained silent when he finished. Undoubtedly, she was taking her time to accept the reality of the situation.

"Alright, let's assume what you said is true, at least you believe it is. How did you manage to turn this restriction stone into an empty mana stone?" She asked and showed him the stone she was still holding.

"Well... that's a bit more complicated."

"Don't worry; I have nothing else to do right now." A genuine smile appeared on her lips, but it made Teseu break into a cold sweat when he looked into her eyes. Those beautiful sapphire eyes weren't smiling...

*swallows nervously* 'I have a feeling she's playing the good cop, so I better behave. I don't want to risk meeting the bad cop...' Teseu thought, then stood up and extended his hand, saying, "Teseu Sailboat, at your service, Your Majesty." Of course, the queen wouldn't accept his handshake, so he wisely switched to a slight bow.