With his hall deforming into mist, Hadrian didn't leave the space yet.

Glancing at a specific direction where a pile of objects were, he summoned the mystical box.

The pile of objects were those he'd carried into this space.

Right now, apart from the mystical box, there wasn't anything as important.

The books and remaining uniform he'd stolen from the mage schools back when he'd planned on infiltrating them, some brima — the rock one chewed on to keep one's mouth fresh and clean — some emergency monster meat and rock.

Like in the fight with the fiend, he might find himself in a situation without any rock to manipulate.

The pile was wrapped around with fog, which maintained their state, especially the emergency meat.

As the box spun in front of him, he studied its engravings.

It must be the witch's sorcery. Otherwise, a mystical artifact shouldn't be this averse to ownership change.

Of course, he was going off of intuition and his past experience with the box in the real world, since the only practical way to test this had great risk.

With the state of the box improving since being kept up here, he'd gained hope that he might be able to bring it into the real world.

However, hearing Lys saying they'd tried tracking it, there was another reason to be wary of.

But, they had failed, and it had given him an idea to attempt something.

Hadrian didn't plan to underestimate their threat. Maybe in a matter of time, they would be able to locate him through Alia and her mother.

More than that, he did not wish to see Alia's mother involved in all this.

So, if the space could interfere with their tracking methods, perhaps he doesn't have to bring Alia into this space, but bring the space to her.

The assumption was the antidivination attribute of the space extended to the fog, and the same way he carried objects in, he would carry the fog out.

In front of him, the fog coalesced into a massive ball that he imagined would be enough to wrap around him and Alia, and maybe even his other vessels.

Snapping his finger, the fog ball vanished.

Immediately, Hadrian felt his collective essence drained.

His vision of the space got blurry, his head buzzed and he was pushed out, finding himself sprawled on the ground in his little rock tent.

He flicked his wrist trying to summon the fog ball into the real world, but he'd been completely drained of essence and naturally, any carried object would be ejected, and since he'd been in that space, the fog ball must have been ejected in there.

Well, that confirms the fog outranks the box.

Supporting himself, he let out a sigh.

There's still a chance. Perhaps with a smaller portion, I could manage.

Being drained of essence like that didn't simply make him like a regular human. He was experiencing essence backlash, and was slightly lethargic.

His other vessels were also in such a state.

His two monkey vessels were in their little spire-like rock tents in unassuming positions.

The current rock tent he'd summoned for he and Alia was beneath the massive surface root of a tree.

He'd left space for airway, but it was still dark inside.

The air was thick with a damp smell of earth, insects were in an uneven chorus with screeches, flapping, loud groans of branches and bristling of the leaves.

Hadrian closed his eyes.

Feeling safe in his little rock tent, he drifted to sleep. This time, all of him did.

A few hours later, Hadrian's eyes opened to a slit.

He sat there for a moment, thinking about the dream he'd had. He hadn't dreamt for a long while.

He also felt rejuvenation he hadn't felt in a long while since he started the substitution sleep.

Yawning, he reached out to his cores and felt the essence coursing through his channels.

Without changing his sleeping position, he closed his eyes and entered that space.

Once more, fog coalesced in front of him, but this time a smaller amount.

With a mental cross of his fingers, he snapped his fingers above the small fog ball, and it vanished.

His essence drained fast, but this time round, it was manageable.

Hastily, he sunk out of that space and into the real world.

In his tent, he flicked his right wrist.

Nothing appeared. His heart sank.

Before grave disappointment grasped him completely, he altered his sight like he would when peering into essence seas, and in front of him, the fog ball spun.

Relief washed over him.

Sending out his intent, the fog ball dispersed and formed thin layers around him and Alia.

With the amount he'd carried into the real world, it was all it could manage.

I could go back and forth to thicken the layer.

Altering his sight back to normal, he couldn't see the fog layer anymore.

But even that already consumed my essence to such low levels.

Hm. It's a plausible way to carry the box into the real world and suppress it with the fog, but the amount of essence I need to carry the box alone, let alone with the fog, makes it impossible at my current level.

He wasn't drained as much as before, but he wanted to go back to sleep.

Closing his eyes, he fell asleep once more.

When he woke up, his mind and body felt even more rejuvenated.

There had been a fogginess in his mind, which he'd not even been aware of, that had been cleared.

I've been too harsh on myself.

Altering his sight, he observed the thin layers of fog around him and Alia.

They'd grown slightly fainter, but at the rate like they would last a whole day.

I can work with that.

Feeling great, he entered that space and carried the brima out.

As he chewed on it, he sent out his spatial sense, trying to see if there were any dangers nearby.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.