Ethan blinked from his hammock and ran toward Evelyn. He read about the Aether Bloom in the Ehrendil; it was one of the rare plants used for elixirs. If he remembered correctly, that one was the most potent plant for increasing the mana pool. But Evelyn wouldn’t have called him in such a hurry if it was easy to reach. Did the damned thing appear behind the space tears?

He arrived by her shortly, letting her drag him by the arm to a small and unstable space tear. Looking through the tear, he didn’t see anything but the different side of the core and the mana stone pile. ‘’What? Where is it?’’

Evelyn pointed with his finger, gesturing wildly in thrill. ‘’Look at the bottom. It's buried under the mana stones. Only a small yellow part of it shows. Did you see the flowers? It’s the Aether Bloom!’’

‘’Are you sure? I can barely see anything there, but Aether Bloom?’’ he questioned with narrow eyes, staring at the tip of a yellow flower.

‘’Of course! I saw this one before, my family both bought and sold it more than once, and I know that it characteristically grows on mana stones because all the nutrients it needs come from pure mana,’’ she explained with a fast pace, but before she finished, the space tear had already disappeared.

Ethan’s brows furrowed, ‘’That’s a bit tricky. More than half of it was inside the protective shield and under the mana stones. Even if I could pull from the edge, it might damage the plant. Also, that space tear was 80 yards away, whereas the space in the area that I could reach is pretty stable. I don’t even remember seeing a tear in there,’’ he said, pointing toward the big rock with mosses on it.

‘’That’s true,’’ she also frowned. ‘’How close are you to advancing your skill?’’

‘’Don’t even mention it,’’ he grimaced. ‘’For the last 10 days, I’m still at the last stage for [Blink]. The [Fabric Tear] is even worse; I don’t know where to start.’’

They sat on the ground to think about what could be done. Ethan mouthed idly, ‘’Comparing to the essence we got at any tier, from early to peak, how much we could get from this Aether Bloom?’’

‘’If we found a good alchemist and made it into elixirs, there could be a high-grade mana elixir for every flower of it. A single person could only drink one of them before getting immunity, but still, that's about half of the essence we could gather at any tier, not counting the advancements.’’

50 fucking INT stats? That’s 500 extra mana… Fuck it. ‘’Alright, I’m going inside to fetch it directly,’’ he asserted with resolve.

‘’You can’t!’’ Evelyn shouted, turning to him abruptly. ‘’I told you already, the core is not in the Elisium. It only projects itself to our reality. It might be located on a higher realm or even on some random star! Adapting your skills to a new environment would take too long, and you can’t even use [Mana Sense] to sense the space tears in the meantime. You’ll get sliced by half, Ethan, don’t do it!’’

‘’Relax, it's not that bad. I still have the Void Manual to sense the space tears, and don’t forget that I’ve been poking my hand there for the last week; the gravity is the same as here, and there is clearly clean air inside,’’ he assured her, a little moved by her concern. ‘’I was already planning to explore before. There are thousands of mana stones lying there. All we got is 30-something. At worst, I can collect another 30 from the edge of the shield.’’

‘’How do you know that Void Manual will work there?’’ she asked in a low voice, considering his argument. ‘’30 mana stones is still better than nothing. Do you think it’s worth it to risk your life for more?’’

‘’I’m not risking anything Eve, Void Manual absorbs mana from the void, and even when I'm close to the space tears, I was able to assimilate mana from the inside with ease. It also lets me know if the void is stable or not because my cultivation speed changes accordingly. Let alone some mana stones and the Aether Bloom, if I wasn’t sure, I wouldn’t risk my life even if I could bring that core,’’ he said with amusement, looking at the anxious girl. When was the last time someone was so concerned about what will happen to me…

Finally coming to an agreement, they sat there to wait for a big enough and stable space tear to appear so that Ethan could jump in it. With Beet and Paprika by their side, they ate some snacks and chatted with their eyes on the space tears.

‘’You said that you lived in the Union before,’’ Ethan reminded Evelyn. ‘’Are there any powerhouses capable of visiting the other realms, even before their ascension? Anyone has something like a giant flying artifact to travel across the stars?’’

‘’What? No way. That is not something anyone in a lower realm is capable of,’’ she stated with bafflement. ‘’And why would they even want to travel before their ascension? This environment is perfect for low tiers. They would only get bullied in higher realms and left with no resources.’’

‘’You seem to know a lot about ascension,’’ he noted with interest.

Evelyn nodded casually, ‘’Yeah, back in the Union, I had a friend who came from a higher realm.’’

Ethan almost choked from the casual reveal. ‘’They could come here too? How does that even work? And why would they?’’

‘’Well, not many people know this, but sometimes they send their children to train, sometimes they build pocket realms to advertise their factions, or in my friend’s situation, to work in their branch until their ascension,’’ she explained the truths that wasn’t even once mentioned in the library of Ehrendil. ‘’She works in the Golden Crafts Pavilion as an executive, one of the few establishments in the Azora that has other branches at higher realms.’’

‘’Did she ever talk to you about other worlds? Do you know if there are worlds without any mana?’’ he asked without really expecting an answer.

‘’Huh? Do you mean the caged worlds? I think she mentioned something like that,’’ she said, confused. ‘’Where is this coming from, Ethan? Why ask worlds without mana?’’

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

‘’Caged worlds?’’ he frowned. ‘’Eve, this is very important for me. I can promise that I’ll explain everything once I got the bigger picture. But please explain it to me first.’’ It won’t change anything even if they know I’ve come from another world. As long as I kept Ani’s existence secret, I don’t have anything useful for the people of this world anyway, but first, I need to figure out what I’m dealing with.

Evelyn was surprised by his attitude, straightening her posture, ‘’I-I don’t know much. Claire said she was sent here as a punishment,’’ she said, frowning as she tried to remember better. ‘’That, originally, she was going to be sent to a caged world, where she couldn’t even cultivate until the punishment was over, but her cousin pulled some strings and managed to send her here instead. Seeing that she was uncomfortable, I didn’t ask much, but you can ask her yourself. As long as you say you’re my friend, she will help.’’

Ethan pondered about what he had learned, but the information was too lacking. Is it a coincidence or is Earth also a caged world? Why the name ‘caged’ though, and what are ascendants doing by going to these places? ‘’Thanks, I would really appreciate it if I could talk with Claire. Where exactly is this Golden Crafts Pavilion?’’

‘’It’s in my hometown, Manshiren, capital of the Cloud region,’’ she replied before adding hesitantly, ‘’Will you go there after you leave this place?’’

Ethan hummed thoughtfully. ‘’I heard that Mirasatra kingdom has a teleport system for the Union. I was already considering going there, might as well try that teleportation gate. What about you? Where is your destination?’’

‘’I’m not sure. I’m not returning to Union yet, that’s for sure,’’ she mumbled. ‘’Spending some time in the free cities sounds good, but I would also like to see the famous Mirasatra, the mountain king- Oh! That one looks sufficient!’’

Ethan also noticed the big space tear that was going to be stable for a minute or so, needing him to hurry. Getting up, ‘’Alright, we’ll continue when I’m back,’’ he said and smirked at Evelyn. ‘’Only after we celebrate the Aether Bloom and count our mana stones, though.’’

He ran toward the space tear with some [Blink]s and jumped five yards with [Long Jump] before entering the true dimension of the pocket world. All of his senses muddled simultaneously, and at the same, he heard Evelyn’s words.

‘’Be careful!’’

Empty words but spoken with sincere intent, like a novel with a generic story that still makes you smile, he thought as the words echoed in his mind. He felt that he had landed but also felt like standing in the air. Activating the Void Manual, Ethan was able to tell the space tears apart, but his vision was blurry, and he had a hard time moving without falling. After some drunken moves, he sat and waited to adapt to the new environment while cultivating and keeping an eye on the stability of the space.

It took more than three hours to somewhat understand where he was exactly, or at least it felt like three hours. The normally dark place was illuminated by the space tears that were appearing everywhere. As their directions were diverse, the path of the lights was diverse as well, giving the place a mythical look. There were some rocks, mud, and water on the ground, but it was mostly flat and black. He felt like standing inside a box filled with holes and dirt. It kinda reminds me of the movie Truman Show.

Ethan stood up shakily, looking for the core and the mana stone pile around it. The distance should’ve been around 100 yards away, but it looked like almost a mile. He walked toward it with caution and tried his skills on the way. They were still usable but not as efficient. There was a second of delay in the [Blink], whereas the [Shadow Spikes] seemed more powerful than ever, materializing before even he aimed for it. What a weird place. Cultivating here might be helpful. Or it might be harmful as well. Who da hell knows? Right… ‘Ani, record everything about this dimension as well as the pocket world itself. Once you have enough data, I’ll ask for a complete analysis and a copy of it as a virtual reality.’

‘Understood.’

When his steps became more natural, he increased his pace and arrived at the core not long after. The core was about 15 feet high from the ground, half-buried in mana stones. There were only a few mana stones left outside of its shield, but some of the mana stones were right at the border. His plan was to remove them and hope for a chained effect, just like the game Jenga but reverse. But of course, Aether Bloom came first.

Circling around the core, Ethan found the yellow plant easily and started inspecting the mana stones around it. Only half of one flower and a little leaf were outside of the shield. He held the leaf and gently pulled it to see where it got stuck worst.

The good news was that the plant was much more resilient than he thought. The bad news was that it was longer than he expected, sticking pretty deep in the pile. Storing it into his ring wasn’t possible either; the shield blocked his mana from feeling the rest of the plant. With no choice, he held the leaf with one hand and removed one of the three possible mana stones underneath.

Nothing happened.

Cursing and wiping his sweaty forehead, Ethan removed the one next to it. This time a few of them rolled over, showing a bit more of the plant. The other mana stone he saved for the last also rolled over, but another one appeared in a different place. Shit! Whatever happens, I’ll pull from the leaf, and if it breaks, then we’ll still have the mana stones. No need to sweat over it, he thought, sweating all over.

As he removed the mana stone, he pulled the plant gently before increasing his strength. The moving plant also pushed some mana stones, and the more the plant got free, the more harshly Ethan pulled until the trunk of it peeked outside of the shield. With shiny eyes, still holding his breath, this time, he grabbed the trunk and pulled it vigorously.

Dozens of mana stones rolled under his feet, and once the Aether Bloom was freed, he fell over his ass with the plant in his hand.

‘’Hahahaha! Who is the Jenga king? Who?!’’ He laughed for a good time, looking at the yellow-green plant with three flowers and the ten mana stones connected to its roots.

Once the thrill passed, Ethan casually collected the mana stones and circled the core a few times more to see if there was another opportunity. He didn’t really care anymore, though. The Aether Bloom had three flowers. Even if they used two, the other one could sell for a fortune; he was sure of it. In this world, any extra help counted as cheating, and there was a penalty of the essence you’ve gained, but your stats were yours. He was sure that rich people would go mad for +50 INT stats.

After looting another dozen or two mana stones, he turned his back to the core and the few thousand mana stones and started walking toward where he came from, looking for big and stable space tears. I'll definitely come back here if I find a way to breach that shield. Let alone the mana stones; who knows how valuable that core is?

Roughly a mile from the core, he sat and cultivated, waiting for a way out. All this time, he only dodged two space tears. It was a rather smooth journey. Two hours later, his way out appeared, and Ethan jumped right into it.

Coming back, his senses got messed up once again, like a jet lag but ten times worse. Fortunately, this time it didn’t take long to regain them. He slowly looked around and was about to yell in triumph before finding Evelyn standing near the big rock, with six people in front of her. One tier-3 brat, four tier-4 men and women, and a bulky man at tier-5. Each of them was watching Ethan with different expressions.

‘’Where the hell is my son!?’’ the bulky one demanded, fuming.

‘’Where the hell is Aiden!?’’ the brat added, imitating.