Within his room, Daniel was sitting quietly on his bed. In his hands, were the two rings given to him by his teachers.
Daniel hadn't had much encounters with spatial essence. The only time he had managed to examine it for a few minutes, was when he had been in the hunting grounds of the canyons.
Unfortunately, the spatial bag was only given to hunters to store prey, and therefore it had limitations. Each pocket of a spatial bag was enchanted, and allowed a different hunter to store their personal prey. Each hunter was able to store and check the content of their personal storage pockets by using their ki.
What they were unable to do, was to withdraw an previously stored item, and store anything that weren't beast cores and carcasses. The reason for that, was to prevent unhappy hunters from asking their items back, or for unauthorized hunters from coming to hunting grounds owned by the Huntsmen Guild.
Daniel wore one of the rings and pushed his ki into it. The next moment, what he saw, was the familiar empty room he had seen within the spatial bag, the only difference, was that the ring's space was much larger.
While the storage pocket within their spacial bag had a space of ten square meters, both of these rings contained a space at least ten times larger.
Inside of the first ring's space, Daniel saw many different items.
Inside the ring given by the old master-at-arms, about ten weapon racks were placed to the sides of the room. Each weapon rack was filled with a different kind of good quality weapon. Some had swords, some had polearms, bows and many other kind of weapons.
To the side of each of these weapon racks, was a stack of books which taught the corresponding weapon mastery.
In the middle of the space was a crate, inside which, beast cores of various ranks were stored. Daniel didn't start counting at that moment, but after a simple glance, he had guessed that there were about twenty rank 4 beast cores, about a hundred rank 3, and many more rank 2 beast cores.
Finally, next to the crate was a small table, above which were various books of martial arts which the old master-at-arms wanted him to practice in. There were at least fifty martial arts, and each of these, was an essential skills that the old man was used to teach to any of his personal students.
Daniel withdrew his ki from the ring given by the old master-at-arms, and started to inspect the ring given by the old alchemist.
The space of this ring, was exactly the same as the one given by the old master-at-arms. But its content was completely different.
The items were all kept in the middle of the room, and were divided into four different piles.
One, was a chest which contained the exact same number of beast cores placed within the chest inside the first ring. A number which Daniel had guessed the to old men to have previously agreed upon to give for reaching the fourth rank.
The second, was another table, above which magic arts and spells were stacked orderly.
The third item was a large cauldron. Daniel wasn't sure of what this cauldron was made of, but it gave him the impression that it could resist a meteor strike. Inside this cauldron, were two thick books. On the first book's leather cover, -Introductory Guide to Alchemy- was cleanly written in black, while on the other, a golden writing spelled -Horticultural and Botanical Glossary-.
The fourth and last item, was an additional spatial ring.
When Daniel noticed this second spatial ring, he immediately pushed his ki inside it, and what he saw, shocked him to his very core.
The space inside this spatial ring wasn't big. Only about twenty square meters, but what was interesting about this ring, was that it didn't simply contain empty space. It instead contained a tiny living world.
On the roof, a small bead which emanated sun essence, could be seen shining sunlight on the entire room while slowly rotating in mid air. Next to it, was another small deactivated bead, from which dormant moon essence could be felt.
The ground was covered in dirt, and in each of the room's corners, a small stone-looking bead which emanated earth essence had been placed.
Buried in the dirt, right in the middle of the room, was a fist sized bead whose vibrant wood essence emanated evenly through the entire ground. The dirt was fertile, and on it, tens of low level herbs had been planted orderly. Daniel recognized these plants as the ingredients for the lowest level of healing pills.
Back on the roof, tens of light blue pearls floated quietly, and on each of them, daniel felt the familiar essence of water. These beads, like the moon bead, were momentarily deactivated, but that couldn't stop Daniel recognizing the essence they emanated.
At about fifteen meters of height, a transparent finger-sized bead flew in a random motion, carrying feeble winds with its passage.
Lastly, engraved on the roof, was a small colorless bead, whose essence Daniel was unable to recognize.
It didn't take long for Daniel to recognize these beads as essence spheres. The essence emanated from these beads, was hundreds of times weaker than the water and wind spheres which the old alchemist had lent Daniel to help him study the water and wind essence. In fact, their essence was just enough to sustain this twenty square meters greenhouse.
The first thing Daniel noticed, was that he wasn't able to interact with any of the items inside this ring, so an idea appeared in his mind. He withdrew his ki from the ring given by the old alchemist, and with it, it took the greenhouse ring as well.
He then wore it, and tried pushed his ki inside the ring once more. Unfortunately, nothing changed. No matter how many times he tried, every time he pushed his ki inside the ring, he would be in the usual ethereal state of a whiff of ki.
Daniel started to think of ideas on how to interact with the items inside the greenhouse ring, and just as he was about to go and ask to the old alchemist, a familiar voice resounded in his head.
"It's your spirit!" Said Sewah.
After pondering for a moment, Daniel asked "What do you mean?"
Sewah snorted within his mind, then continued "Your spirit is your consciousness.. If you want to take a dive in the water, you don't just dip your feet!.. Sometimes I doubt human's intelligence.."
"A spiritual item.. For spiritual cultivators.. Of course" Daniel muttered after realizing his mistakes.
He then tried to push his spirit along with his ki inside the greenhouse ring, and all of a sudden, he found himself inside the ring once again. But this time, he wasn't inside only as a whiff of ki, but physically.
The moment Daniel entered his ring, he dropped on his knees and started to puke. This had been the first time for Daniel to shift through different spatial planes, and this reaction, was completely expected. Of course, Daniel wasn't aware of that.
The greenhouse was an old room, and its atmosphere was created by using a wind sphere which could simulate the same composition of the air in the outside world, as it was necessary to grow herbs. Thanks to that, Daniel was able to breathe.
This small ring had been the most amazing item he had been given by the two old men. After all, not only was this a portable greenhouse, but also a low level habitable world.
There was only one problem.. Daniel had no idea how to get out of it.
Inside Daniel's room, a small ring rested on his bed quietly.
On another part of the building, both the old men turned their heads at the same time, and their faces cracked up in a smile.
"Hehe.. Happens every time.." Said the old master-at-arms. "You should go get him out.."
An evil grin suddenly appeared on the old alchemist's face, as he answered "What's the rush.. Haha"
The two then went back to sip their tea.
-----
Back inside the greenhouse ring, Daniel quietly sat on the ground. He hadn't been able to find a way out for the past two hours, and he was starting to get a little anxious.. When suddenly, an external power forcibly pulled him out of the ring. He found himself back inside his room, and next to him, was the old alchemist.
"I don't know if I should congratulate you for finding out how to store living things inside a living space, or if I should be depressed about the fact that you've found it out on your own skin.. HAHAHA!" Said the old alchemist before being unable to hold his laughter any longer.
With embarrassment in his voice, Daniel asked "What did I do wrong?"
"Ki and spirit are your body.. If you force both of them inside a living space, you shift entirely inside it. You should have just used your spirit, your consciousness would have entered the ring as well, but your physical body would have stayed outside." The old alchemist explained patiently.
Daniel took the ring from the old alchemist's hand, and tried to push his spirit into it. The very next moment, he appeared inside the living space. The shape he had taken was humanoid but not solid. It could interact with the items within the greenhouse, but it was more like telekinesis than an actual physical interaction.
Daniel could feel a connection to his physical body outside of the ring, and he felt as if there was a bridge between space which he could use go withdraw his spirit.
He tried to right away, and after a moment, he was back inside his body.
"Amazing.." Said Daniel. He then looked at the old alchemist, and once again, he bowed and exclaimed "Thank you!"
The old alchemist smiled once more, then left the room.
It was now lunch time, and Daniel wanted to reach his sister and Mea to eat. He put the greenhouse ring back inside the ring give by the old alchemist, wore the two rings on each hand, and left the room.
The atmosphere in the building had changed since the last night. Everywhere Daniel passed, other people's eyes would move on him. He didn't know it, but the many leaders which had witnessed to the cultivation anomaly he had caused, had ordered their disciples and sons to keep an eye on Daniel. Unfortunately, they hadn't been reminded to be discreet.
Daniel arrived in front of his sister's room in a few minutes, and after he knocked the door for a couple of times, his beautiful sister opened the door.
She was strangely well dressed, and her dress was nothing that Daniel had ever bought her.
Unable to find a way to compliment his sister, Daniel said "Finally you look like a girl.. I was getting tired of convincing people that you aren't my older broth- Ahhh!!" His joke was interrupted by a kick to his shin.
"Thank you" Said Reila with a happy expression.
"Mhh.. Why are you dressed like this? Is lunch really that important to you?" After giving her a crooked look, Daniel asked.
Reila gave him a derisive look, then said "Mea and I are visiting the Folding Crane School with Riri and Miri"
"Oh.. okay, i'll go eat by myself then" Responded Daniel before turning around and leaving.
Reila's thin and soft hand immediately pinched at his clothes and pulled him back. "Hold on! Finn and Nilo are waiting for you in the mess hall.. You can go eat with them but.. Just a word of advice.. Everyone has been acting pretty weirdly ever since last night's lights show." She said with a whispering tone.
"Alright, if I see them there, i'll eat with them." Daniel agreed, as he didn't mind eating with Finn and Nilo, but before leaving, he looked back at Reila, and said "You look great." Then he left.
Reila's beautiful lips rose into a charming smile, then went back inside her room, closing the door behind her.