Garner remained inside the cavern long after Leo and King stopped speaking.
The two peak King-rank experts had already withdrawn to the cave entrance, allowing him space to study the vein.
For them, the place was nothing more than an ancient deposit of rare stones.
But for Garner…
It was overwhelming.
Everywhere he looked, space strings filled his vision.
They were denser than anything he had ever seen.
The white strings of wind and earth were thin and orderly.
The blue ones were not.
They twisted.
They bent.
They intersected.
They crossed through each other endlessly.
Garner slowly walked between the crystal formations.
"This doesn't make sense…"
When he studied wind before, the strings clearly followed a simple rule.
Wind moved.
Earth held weight.
Fire burned.
Each law behaved predictably.
But space…
Space strings did not follow simple paths.
They stretched across the cavern and vanished into empty air.
Some connected distant parts of the cave.
Others folded sharply and returned to the same place.
It looked chaotic.
Garner crouched beside a cluster of Space Stones.
"Alright…"
He extended his hand toward a blue string.
Just like when he manipulated wind.
Just like when he commanded gravity.
He tried to grasp it.
Nothing happened.
The string slipped through his fingers.
Garner frowned.
"Why?"
He tried again.
This time, he attempted to command it.
"Move."
Silence.
The string didn't react.
He clenched his teeth.
When he used wind law, the strings responded immediately.
Space refused.
Hours passed.
Garner tested again and again.
Still nothing.
Eventually he collapsed onto a rock, breathing heavily.
"This is impossible…"
A quiet voice came from the cave entrance.
"That's because you're approaching it the wrong way."
Garner turned.
King slowly floated forward on his fading miasma.
Leo remained leaning against the cave wall, arms crossed.
King looked around the cavern.
"Wind moves."
"Fire burns."
"Earth supports."
"These laws act."
He looked directly at Garner.
"But space… does not act."
Garner frowned.
"Then what does it do?"
King answered calmly.
"It connects."
Garner froze.
King continued.
"Distance exists because space connects two points."
Leo added quietly,
"Remove that connection… and distance disappears."
Garner slowly stood.
His eyes shifted back toward the countless blue strings filling the cavern.
Not chaos.
Connections.
Every string was linking two places together.
He lifted his hand again.
This time…
He did not try to move the string.
Instead—
He followed it.
From one point…
to another.
His eyes widened.
The string connected the rock beneath his feet…
to a crystal five meters away.
Garner whispered,
"So if I change the connection…"
The blue string trembled slightly.
Leo's eyes sharpened.
King smiled faintly.
Garner focused.
Not pulling.
Not pushing.
Just folding the connection.
The world flickered.
For the briefest moment—
Garner vanished.
And reappeared five meters away beside the crystal.
Silence filled the cavern.
Leo straightened immediately.
King's eyes widened slightly.
Garner stared at his own hands.
"…I moved."
King corrected him softly.
"No."
"You folded distance."
Garner looked around the cavern again.
Now the strings made sense.
Not chaos.
Connections.
And if he could manipulate them…
Then distance…
Was only an illusion.
Far away…
One of the teleportation frogs appeared briefly at the cave entrance.
Watching.
As if recognizing that Garner had finally taken the first step into the law of space.
Garner had been inside the Space Stone cavern for three days.
And he had made almost no progress.
The underground cave remained silent except for the occasional drip of water from the ceiling and the faint hum of the countless blue crystals embedded in the rock.
The entire cavern was saturated with space strings.
Garner sat on a large crystal formation, breathing slowly while circulating the essence inside his body.
His internal storage was nearly empty again.
"…Again."
He had already exhausted his essence five times today.
Every attempt to manipulate the space strings drained enormous amounts of energy.
Even the simplest movement of space law consumed far more essence than wind or gravity.
Garner looked down at his hands.
"So this is why no one studies space law…"
Even King and Leo had not attempted to learn it.
The cost alone made it nearly impossible.
Garner stood up again.
"Last try."
He extended his hand and focused on one of the blue strings.
Instead of commanding it, he followed its connection.
One point…
Another point…
Ten meters away.
Garner inhaled.
"Fold."
The world twisted.
The cave flickered.
And suddenly—
Garner appeared beside a tall crystal formation ten meters away.
The moment he arrived, his knees collapsed.
"Damn…"
His essence storage was nearly empty again.
Leo watched from the cave entrance and shook his head.
"You're burning through essence like a madman."
King remained silent.
But his eyes were focused on something else.
A soft sound echoed from the cavern ceiling.
Pop.
Garner looked up.
A small blue frog appeared on top of one of the crystals.
The teleportation frog.
Garner's breathing slowed.
"Perfect timing."
The frog tilted its head.
Then it jumped.
Pop.
It disappeared.
And instantly reappeared on another crystal nearly fifteen meters away.
Garner forced himself to stand.
"Again…"
The frog jumped once more.
Garner focused completely.
This time he didn't look at the frog.
He looked at the strings.
The moment the frog moved—
The blue strings bent.
They folded smoothly.
Not violently like when Garner forced them.
Gracefully.
Naturally.
Garner whispered,
"So that's how…"
The frog wasn't manipulating space.
It was simply moving along the existing connection.
King spoke quietly behind him.
"You see it now."
Garner nodded slowly.
"The frog isn't using power."
"It's following the path space already made."
Leo smirked.
"Exactly."
Garner looked down at the ground.
Everywhere in the cavern, space strings were connecting different points.
Countless paths.
Invisible roads.
The frogs simply used the roads that already existed.
Garner closed his eyes.
This time he did not try to bend space.
He searched.
Following the connections.
There.
A path.
From the ground beneath him…
To a crystal nearly twenty meters away.
Garner stepped forward.
The connection folded.
The world flickered.
And—
Garner appeared beside the crystal.
Twenty meters.
He didn't collapse this time.
But his essence was nearly drained again.
Leo raised an eyebrow.
"Improved."
King gave a small nod.
"Because he stopped fighting space."
Garner leaned against the crystal, breathing heavily.
"Even then…"
"…it still costs too much essence."
King looked around the cavern.
"That will change."
Garner frowned.
"How?"
King pointed toward the countless crystals surrounding them.
"You're standing inside the answer."
Garner looked around the cavern again.
The entire place was filled with Space Stones.
Each one condensed with dense space law.
Realization slowly spread across his face.
"You're saying…"
Leo finished the thought.
"The frogs don't use their own essence."
"They use the essence inside the vein."
Garner's eyes widened.
That meant the cavern itself acted like a natural reservoir of space essence.
Which was why the frogs could move endlessly without exhaustion.
Garner smiled slowly.
"So I've been doing this the hardest possible way."
King gave a rare faint smile.
"Yes."
Garner looked back at the teleportation frog now sitting quietly on a crystal.
"For three days… you were showing me the answer."
The frog blinked.
Then jumped again.
Pop.
Garner followed.
This time, instead of forcing the connection—
He borrowed the space essence surrounding the crystal.
The fold happened instantly.
Garner reappeared thirty meters away.
He remained standing.
His internal essence barely moved.
Leo straightened immediately.
King's eyes sharpened.
Garner looked at his hands in disbelief.
"…I did it."
For the first time since entering the cavern—
Garner had used space law without exhausting himself.
But the moment the fold completed—
The entire cavern suddenly trembled.
The frogs scattered in panic.
The blue crystals vibrated violently.
Leo's expression changed instantly.
"…That's not good."
Garner turned.
"What?"
King looked toward the deepest tunnel in the cavern.
"The guardian."
A deep rumble echoed through the underground cave.
From the darkness beyond the crystal forest…
Two enormous blue eyes slowly opened.
Something ancient had awakened.
And it had sensed Garner.
Meanwhile, far away in the ruined northern territories…
Teresa and Keith stood hidden behind a collapsed wall, watching a convoy of armored soldiers escorting a group of civilians.
Keith narrowed his eyes.
"That's the convoy we heard about."
Teresa clenched her fists.
One of the soldiers spoke loudly near the wagons.
"Move them quickly. The order came directly from the capital."
Another soldier responded,
"Why are they so important anyway?"
The first soldier shrugged.
"Something about one of them being related to a rare taker."
Teresa's heart skipped.
The soldier continued,
"I heard the family name mentioned in the report."
Keith leaned closer.
"What name?"
The soldier scratched his head.
"…Garner."
Teresa froze.
Keith's eyes darkened.
But before they could react further—
The convoy suddenly began moving again.
Heading north.
Toward a place neither of them expected.