Of course, before anything else, he needed to max out this new Divine Level skill. It wouldn't cost much—only 450,000 Adventure EXP.
Adventure EXP -450,000
> Domain of Objective Illusory Shadows · Divine Level Lv.1 (0/10000) → Domain of Objective Illusory Shadows · Divine Level Lv.10 (Unobservable State)
Hundreds of thousands of EXP vanished in an instant, and the skill was now max level.
From the feedback, Nolan understood the new Divine Level trait—it could place everything within the barrier into an absolutely unobservable state.
No matter the method or angle of observation, it would fail—true, absolute invisibility.
After upgrading, his nine million-plus EXP was now just over eight million:
> [Adventure EXP: 8,205,647]
It was completely worth it. Since there was still time, Nolan decided to test the new Divine Level skill with a bit of anticipation.
First, an invisible barrier unfolded, enveloping him. It felt as if an utterly secret, sensationless curtain had wrapped around his entire being.
Then, he initiated a jump to the shallow layer of space.
The process was almost identical to Abysswalker, though the energy cost was slightly lower.
Soon, he jumped again, arriving at the dark void of the deep layer of space.
Like the farthest reaches of the universe, this place had no oxygen, no light, no gravity, and no radiation. The naked eye could see nothing; only spiritual sense and spatial perception worked here.
Before, he could go no farther—deep space was the limit.
Now, he tried to continue the jump.
There was no sense of straining to break through, no dizziness or discomfort. It was like opening a door to the outside—effortless and natural.
The darkness vanished. He was still floating, still without gravity or oxygen, but now he could see.
Around him were fragmented projections—or rather, this entire space was composed of these scattered, broken projections.
They were visible but wildly unstable.
One second, about ten meters ahead, the fragments showed a planet with an enormous artificial ring encircling it.
The next moment, the projection shifted to a dead world, its surface flowing with magma and fire, where a flame-headed demon wearing round, single-lens glasses and a suit hovered in the air.
Sometimes, the two scenes merged, like shards of video-playing glass jumbled together.
When Nolan tried to grasp the projections with spiritual sense, they shifted again into other images. As his spiritual sense extended the ten meters needed to "touch" them, the feedback came back—nothing there.
Thinking the projections might be untouchable, he tried reaching toward a more distant one.
In the middle of that attempt, his spiritual sense brushed against something in what appeared to be empty space.
A far-off projection suddenly shattered even further.
It became clear—the physical parameters of this dimension were as unstable as the projections themselves. What his eyes saw was a false location; the real coordinates were elsewhere.
It was bizarre, chaotic.
Then he noticed—he hadn't moved, yet somehow his location had changed. His extended spiritual sense suddenly reached far beyond where it should have, before vanishing once it left his perception range. The loss was because his "real" coordinates had silently shifted.
This change wasn't caused by any external force—it was an innate property of the dimension.
Strange. Very strange.
Luckily, he had Interstellar Travel, allowing instant teleportation to the girls' locations.
Otherwise, the moment he entered, his coordinates could shift unpredictably, and he'd have no idea where he'd emerge in surface space—possibly anywhere in the universe.
In both shallow and deep space, any movement changes your surface-space exit point.
His original plan was to use this deeper-than-deep dimension, beyond the reach of the "False Sky" barrier, to travel unseen, then resurface outside Teyvat.
But here, he didn't even have to walk—he just got dragged somewhere random. Anyone else would get lost instantly.
He, however, had options: he could always return to his Wonderland space and then exit to Teyvat from there.
Since he'd entered the Wonderland space from the Akademiya, then descended into this dimension, rising back up into Wonderland would put him back in the Akademiya.
If he instead opened the Wonderland "door" here, the saved coordinates would change from the Akademiya to this place, and exiting again would drop him back here. That would cut off his direct return—unless he first sent everyone inside the Wonderland back to their pre-entry locations and then teleported to one of them via Interstellar Travel.
In other words, even if all the girls with "waymark" happened to be inside the Wonderland, and he carelessly re-entered it from here, he could still return to Teyvat.
Assured he wouldn't be lost forever in this bizarre projection-filled dimension, Nolan boldly explored.
Mostly, he just looked around. The projections were unstable and untouchable anyway.
Were there any other living beings here?
With that question in mind, he picked a random direction and flew forward.
Not that it mattered—in a place where coordinates constantly shift, even standing still would eventually drop him somewhere else.
After about twenty minutes of exploration, he found nothing useful—just endless projections, like endlessly changing TV channels.
And without being able to extend his spiritual sense outward, exploration efficiency dropped noticeably.
The problem was, every time he sent his spiritual sense out, his own position could change at any moment.
If the shift happened within the range of his spiritual sense, that was fine. But if it shifted even slightly beyond that range, the extended sense would lose contact with him entirely—wasted for nothing.
Unless he carried a sun around to keep feeding him energy, he couldn't afford such massive consumption.
Since there was no way to discover anything meaningful in this seemingly endless dimensional space for now, Nolan decided to surface and see where he would appear in surface space.
Whether he could leave Teyvat or not would be decided in this moment!
With a thought, he quickly rose into the deep layer of space, then into the shallow layer.
Normally, at this point, he could glimpse a hazy view of the surface world.
But this time, it was still pitch-black, just like deep space.
Could it be outer space? The only places he could think of that were this dark were the cosmic void… or perhaps it was simply nighttime outside?
Unable to confirm from the shallow layer, he kept rising to the surface layer.
Right now, he was in an absolutely hidden, unobservable state. Even if he really were in the cosmic void, no dangerous radiation could touch him.
After all, just as scientists use various methods to detect unknown phenomena, cosmic radiation could also be used for observation.
If he were "touched" by radiation, it would mean being detected by it—contradicting his unobservable state.
A Divine Level trait certainly wouldn't fail against mere cosmic radiation.
Still, to be safe, he layered himself with sword-intent shields, elemental shields, spiritual shields—every defense he had.
After all, you needed to be careful when stepping into the unknown.
Exhaling silently, he continued rising until he reached the surface layer. Sure enough, just as in the shallow layer, it was pitch-black, with no gravity and no oxygen.
Extending his spiritual sense out to a radius of one hundred kilometers, he found that most of the surrounding space was void, with nothing at all—though here and there floated chunks of rock, like meteoroids.
He was fairly sure he was in outer space now, though how far from Teyvat he was, he couldn't tell.
Flying around to search was out of the question.
Even at light speed, hunting for a single planet in the cosmos would be idiotic—and he couldn't reach light speed anyway.
There wasn't a single glimmer of light nearby. Either he was far from any self-luminous stars, their light blocked by cosmic dust, or he was in some corner of space light hadn't yet reached.
Trying to find Teyvat here had odds close to one in 10^100 million.
What he really needed was an astronomical telescope—or, on the mystical side, astrology.
This was exactly why he placed such high hopes on Mona.
Otherwise, even if he someday built a ship capable of sailing the star seas, he'd never be able to find Earth.
Thinking of this, and seeing the time, he decided not to wander aimlessly in the void.
He'd head back and help Noelle with lunch.
Still, now that he had finally made it into outer space, it would be impossible not to explore at all. He was already planning to bring Mona here, letting her use astrology to divine the nearest signs of life or treasure.
If they were too far, they could just shift positions via that chaotic projection-dimension whose physical parameters changed at random—try enough times, and they'd eventually encounter a planet. Even if they found nothing, it would still be good experience.
Casting one last look at the black cosmic expanse, Nolan sliced open a spatial rift, opened the "door" to his Wonderland space, and stepped inside.
That way, next time he came out, it would be right back here.
It was around 11:50 a.m. when he returned to the Wonderland space. Noelle was already in the kitchen preparing lunch, so he quickly dispelled his barrier and went over to help—otherwise, if everyone thought he was slacking, that'd be bad.
---
Wonderland Space – Kitchen
With the expansion of the space, the kitchen had been enlarged slightly. Noelle, in her maid-style armor, was washing vegetables.
The rice seemed to be cooking already, so Nolan went over to cut the vegetables and fresh wild boar meat.
With his Divine Level Musou no Hitotachi trained to max level, basic knife work was nothing to him.
He set the ingredients on the chopping board—tak tak tak—and in minutes, the washed vegetables and meat were neatly sliced, every piece uniform.
Since he had arrived a little late, Noelle had already washed all the vegetables, the rice was done, and all the pots and utensils for cooking were cleaned and ready.
He suddenly found himself with little to do.
"Honorary Knight, it seems not everyone is here yet. Let's steam the dishes that need steaming first, then take a short break before cooking the rest," Noelle said with a sweet smile.
With her work efficiency, she could easily handle the entire lunch prep alone, but the others insisted she shouldn't have to work by herself—hence why one or two people were assigned to help her.
So she didn't mind him coming back a bit late.
"Mm, that works too—better than letting the dishes get cold," Nolan nodded.
Cooking for two people wouldn't take long anyway; they could wait until everyone returned before starting.
Soon, the steamed dishes were ready. There weren't many people in the living room yet—probably still busy.
Noelle began tidying the chopping board and knives, planning to start cooking once more people arrived.
But as she was cleaning up, Nolan reached from behind and took hold of her bare hand.
Having just washed them, her fair skin was still dotted with droplets, cool to the touch.
"Eh? Honorary Knight?" Noelle turned her head in confusion.
Nolan kissed her cheek, slipped an arm lightly around her soft waist, and smiled.
"These can wait until we wash the dishes after the meal. Right now, we have a little free time—let me help you get stronger."
(End of Chapter)
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