The No Man's Land was still weird. Kaden could now directly see the space wave outside of the range of stability from Zeruek's hideout. It was like watching sea. He looked into that space between dimensions and in there he could see pieces of the world float about. Some of them were larger and some smaller. Perhaps some day the fragments would float back and collide with ordinary space and recombine.

Kaden checked, if there was something odd with the mana. He absorbed some mana the usual way which still worked. Its just that, if he wanted to use it to grow stronger, he had to understand it. Things like the godless mana system still functioned. It was mana. He was 'made with it', so when mana became part of him, it organized itself along with the rest. Be it mana gained by ordinary means or godless mana system. As for any unusual changes due to being in No Man's Land, Kaden noted none.

That understanding by itself seemed to give extremely slight progress for Kaden's entire understanding.

"It seems even minor things count, but this is nearly nonexistent", Kaden noted to himself.

Regardless whether there was something he could still miss, the churning mana did not disrupt Kaden in any way.

Kaden could have easily flown away in a very short time, but he instead flew around and sensed the world. It was now relatively safe for him so he sated his curiosity. Ever since he entered No Man's Land, he had felt the mana was unusually lively, not just how it behaved. This had been one of the reasons he decided to examine the mana and the surroundings.

There was certain detail Kaden knew. Phoenixes had to find that specific life type mana to produce birth flames. Perhaps what he was feeling was exactly that. He knew a bit of it, since he spent enough time in the phoenix clan. Phoenixes were already benefiting from its effects and there was little to gain even if you were to gather more for your own uses rather than for reproduction. It was mostly a curiosity to Kaden, but there still remained some power to be gained. It was a fine research subject.

"It is extremely difficult to gather so I won't bother, but I'd like to examine some", Kaden thought to himself. "Gaining understanding on such specific mana with such major influence to my own existence is surely beneficial."

The thing is, he could find none. Or perhaps more accurate would be that the sort of life mana he found was just tiny little essentially small particles that he could not even completely examine. This came not as a surprise either. Phoenixes usually had to remain still in one place and gather large amounts of mana and then sieve through it for the correct one until there was enough of it to collect. Then repeat over and over until you had enough for your use.

"I will come back later", Kaden decided. "It's not a pressing matter."

It would be easy to return once he had the time.

Getting out of the No Man's Land was easy. Kaden merely flew out and he wasn't even going to fastest speed possible. On the way he merely hit a section of space where distances stretched, but that only slowed him temporarily.

Before exiting, he altered his appearance to his human side. Someone powerful would note a True Magus at some point. It was likely, if he was seen as an enemy, someone would come stop him. Hence, it was best to appear non hostile and let those interested get a better look in peaceful terms rather than in combat.

There were defenses on in both empires from just sending their True Magi over to destroy things.

"It will come out who I am so making a fake identity will be pointless", Kaden though to himself. "There will be some questions regarding how I reached this point, why I am not dead and all that, but if I don't make too many big moves openly, no one should bother a True Magus."

While Kaden was aware of being noticed and he had no idea how long he would remain a curiosity as a fresh True Magus, he did not want to just wait and do nothing. Some excuses would need to be made and do things that wouldn't bring him problems.

Kaden had some ideas.

For example, Kaden desired to destabilize current power structure. Church was untouchable, but things outside of their usual concern could be influenced and they would truly only do something once it was already far enough to be problem for them.

"I should see if Northwinds are still alive", Kaden decided.

Now that he was out of the No Man's Land his previous setup that he used to follow his slaves began working once more. Kaden had previously thought it relatively okay quality, but now he could see his formation structure to be leaky and inefficient. He decided to correct this soon.

It seemed his slaves were still functioning at least. The expendable ones were clearly dead and Nervin was in bad condition, but it was not due to the slave formation. From what Kaden could tell he had been hunted and mostly remained hidden. Northwinds were fine. This was good. They were useful.

He did not go straight towards Corand, but instead went back to the Northwind's hideout. While he did not plan to use the teleportation formation, he wanted to see it. Suddenly appearing in middle of Corand would be bad. No, Kaden hoped to see it and perhaps replicate it, if he ever needed one. True Magi were fast, but it was still neccessary sometimes to travel even faster. Besides he wanted to understand space more.

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As Kaden entered the hideout, he noted no one had used it for a while. Not even Nervin. He must have been force to leave. His orders would have demanded it, if staying risked linking him to Northwinds. It would have been bad.

As for the teleportation formation. It was an interesting piece of construction. People below True Magi could not simply see its true form, but Kaden now could.

"I'm not really sure how its done", Kaden looked at the formation and pondered. Certain physical parts that were supposed to conduct mana were somehow twisted into higher dimensions and partially into the space between dimensions. In No Man's Land he had seen stuff float in there, but those were fragments of space containing the physical objects. These parts were physical, yet not contained in some space. "It must be the materials and why its costly."

What Kaden knew of the materials needed did not suggest this property. They were likely bent into the dimensional form by some mana. They were mana conductive and with enough of mana, things could occur, if done right.

The teleportation mechanism itself was far more obvious. Space was oddly shaped around the formation. Once activated, it would flip the two ends. This allowed the two way use. If the end point did not contain that spatial structure, it would be one way, such as on his way to Murika. Zeruek's library had contained some older method that did not match Kaden's current observations. That required far more power and involved warping of space in greater degree.

Kaden wondered whether he could put together a temporary teleportation formation out of pure mana. It was likely. Remembering the seemingly complex structure of dimensionally twisted materials was actually not that hard. He would only have to spend time understanding all of its parts and their function. If he could do that, he might even be able to improve on it. This example of a formation was just something the Northwinds paid for a True Magus to put together. It was likely a very simple version. Kaden was interested in more complex versions. If this one was simple, he would surely improve it. A few more tests and he should be able to come up with a much better one.

Even before seeing the formation, Kaden assumed a True Magus would be able to teleport at least a short distance by default. For example taking a trip through the void between dimensions. Nothing really prevented Kaden from entering at one point and then coming out at another. It wouldn't exactly be teleportation, but functionally the same. Kaden was more interested in the real thing.

Kaden gained some understanding of space from his ponderings. It seemed almost any and all investigations would increase his understandin and power. He wondered what he should seek out to gain more than these little crumbs each time. Otherwise it could take hundreds to even thousands of years for him to reach level of an Archmagus, which he needed to happen.

Kaden left the hideout and continued on his way to Corand. On the way he noticed some sensation lock onto him and then pass by. He had been noticed. Yet, Kaden did not sense that anyone was coming. That would come later once whoever was behind the observations would find enough about him.

"Its likely the church or someone related to them", Kaden decided. "They will attempt to recruit me, but I will decline them. I'll tell them I'm not ready yet to choose a direction."

That was perfectly acceptable excuse that the church would accept. Kaden was an unaffiliated True Magus so it would make sense for him to act more freely. Those who grew with church's help were already part of it. They would expect Kaden to come along too eventually since they would have best resources and best directions that a True Magus could follow to grow. It just meant serving the church, which most people already did if they worshipped gods. For most people it was not really even a choice.

How long would they accept Kaden going around with no 'leash'?

"I believe I will have plenty of time", Kaden finally decided. "Church will come when they see their offer has good chance to be accepted. That is, once I have stagnated for a while and ran out of things to do. Then they will come tell me they can help me grow if I work for them. Ha, I might even do a few odd jobs for them to keep them happy. It won't be any different from the military, I believe. The black pentagon should still protect me from any random dealings with gods and their influence."

Now that Kaden knew what the black pentagon was, he could predict easily how far it would work. Even Archmagus would have trouble telling something was off and even as True Magus, Kaden expected to not run into any of them. That would start to happen, if he ever became someone high up in the church that directly worked with them. That was not something Kaden aspired to. A few games with them was fine, but otherwise no.

With his speed Kaden soon saw Corand and he slowed down. He floated towards the city at a casual speed. He intended to simply fly over the walls. As if any True Magus would simply walk in.

Yet, as Kaden flew through a membrane of mana surrounding the city, he soon after saw a small stream of mana approach him. It came from a guard at the walls that was at Condensation stage. Likely higher officer.

The stream of mana was made out of sound mana. It was a transmission. Kaden let it in.

"Lord True Magus, I would request to come down and offer us a sample of your mana so we can identify you in the future."

There was no need to deny the request. It was expected. Likely the city was covered in that sort of mana field that could identify someone. While Kaden had suspected it before, he had not interacted with it before, at least knowingly. It wouldn't be a surprise. Those in control of it would be able to find anyone at will. They just wouldn't bother with ordinary people.

Kaden decided not to try starting anything in the city, if he could not obscure it.

Kaden landed and nodded at the smiling guard offering him a crystal. Kaden sent out a small piece of mana into it.

"Thank you lord True Magus", the guard asked. "May I have your name to attach to the signature?"

He had decided not to lie. "Just 'Kaden'", Kaden said.

The guard quickly added it in. "Thank you. I'm sure you understand why this must be done. Its actually rather unusual to see another new True Magi come. Its just a few weeks since the last one."

What?

"Are you saying someone else became a True Magus just before me?" Kaden questioned. "An occurence that might not happen even once in a decade?"

"Indeed, it was some unusual merchant", the guard replied. "One that worked with nobles. Lady Fundun, I believe was the name."

Kaden grimaced. It was the crazed robot, 7RU-MC. What kind of True Magus does a machine become? At the very least it was able to still deceive people about its true nature.

"Acquaintance?" The guard noted Kaden's reaction.

"One could say that", Kaden replied. Then he brushed aside the annoyance. The robot was far less annoying than, say, Ciner. It was also surprisingly competent despite its behavior. Perhaps it could be useful to maintain connection to it. "If that is all, I shall be going."

The guard nodded.