Soon, they arrived at a coffee shop.
The moment their taxi stopped and the three of them stepped out, two neat rows of staff bowed deeply.
"Welcome, Mr. Moriarty, Ms. Celestus, and Ms. Valentina," they said in unison.
The scene was somewhat eye-catching, but none of them were surprised. Given their identities, such courtesy was only natural.
Alex gave a slight nod, and the three entered the shop, choosing a quiet table.
"Bring the best of the house, please," Alex ordered calmly.
He did not wait for the drinks to arrive. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Selena, studying her with clear intent.
The moment she noticed, Selena's neck, ears, and cheeks flushed red. She even looked as if steam might rise from her head.
Before she could say anything, Anna spoke up.
"Hey, why are you looking at her like that? Staring at a young maiden with such intensity is rude," she said, her tone carrying a hint of jealousy.
Alex immediately realized the misunderstanding.
"Ah, I am sorry," he said quickly. "I was just very curious about space manipulation."
The moment he explained, Selena felt a sour taste rise on her tongue, while Anna felt unexpectedly sweet inside.
They both realized that Alex had not been flirting. He was simply interested in Selena's talent.
Selena, however, was the heir of an emperor family. Composure and self-control had been drilled into her from childhood. She quickly adjusted her expression and looked at Alex professionally.
"Yes. What do you want to know?" she asked.
"Tell me how your talent works in general," Alex said.
"I can teleport objects from one place to another within my line of sight," Selena replied. "The objects must be under two meters in length, and their weight cannot exceed nine times what I can normally carry."
She paused briefly, then continued honestly.
"I once tried to teleport a rat. It died."
She did not try to hide this fact.
Alex frowned slightly in thought. "Then did you try wrapping the living animal in an energy shield or something similar?" he asked instinctively.
Selena was stunned by the question. After a moment, she shook her head.
"No. After the rat died, I never experimented with living organisms again."
"I see. How many objects can you teleport at once?" Alex asked.
"One at a time," she replied.
"Alright. Thank you for explaining," Alex said with a sincere smile.
At that moment, he already wanted to practice on his own. But before doing so, he decided he needed to visit the Alliance first.
"But why are you so interested in my talent?" Selena asked, lifting her coffee mug and taking a sip which just arrived at the table.
"Well, I am very interested in what exists beyond our planet," Alex replied. "So I was wondering whether you could eventually teleport directly to the moon."
It was a lie, yet not entirely a lie.
"Maybe I will be able to do that after reaching the Emperor realm," Selena said calmly, without any sign of shock.
Alex nodded in response.
"Hey, are you not interested in my ability?" Anna asked with a slight pout.
"You are the princess of the Celestus family," Alex replied with a laugh. "Would you even tell me if I asked?"
"So you do know my identity," Anna said. "Then why did you refuse to become my friend? Am I not worthy?"
She asked directly, without hesitation.
Alex was stunned. At that moment, he finally understood her earlier behavior. It was because he had rejected her earlier offer of friendship.
"It is not that you are unworthy," Alex said gently. "Friendship does not depend on worthiness."
He continued after a short pause.
"It is just that I cannot easily trust people around me. Making friends is difficult for me. But if one day I am able to trust, and you still want to become my friend, then we will definitely become friends."
Anna felt both relieved and saddened when she heard this. She had investigated Alex's past and knew exactly why he struggled to trust others.
"Then it is a promise," she said softly. "As for my ability, it is gravity manipulation. I can increase gravity up to one hundred times within a fifty-meter radius within my eye sight, and I can decrease it as well."
Alex was surprised that she had revealed her talent so openly,but she said it was only 100 times but he saw in her description that it was upto 1000 times.
Maybe she didn't know yet. She could only use 100 times.
"Thank you for telling me," he said sincerely. "Let's team up tomorrow if teams are allowed."
He extended his hand for a handshake.
Anna's cheeks turned red beneath her veil, but she still reached out and took his hand.
"Okay."
At that moment, a familiar mechanical voice echoed in Alex's mind.
[An elemental talent, Gravity Manipulation, is detected. Copy it?]
"What?" Alex was confused. "Gravity is considered an element? I thought it was closer to a physical or law-type talent."
In his understanding, elements were fire, earth, water, air, wood, light, darkness, space, time, and similar concepts.
Gravity, to him, had always been a law rather than an element. This assumption came from his past life experience with fantasy novels.
"It seems there is much more to this copying ability than I thought," Alex mused internally.
"Copy," he accepted without hesitation.
After all, it was an SSS-rank talent.
After saying goodbye to Selena and Anna, Alex took a taxi and headed toward the Alliance.
He went looking for Tenzen, the man who had introduced him to the wristband. He was not sure whether Tenzen would still be at the Alliance at such a late hour.
But he found him.
"Mr. Moriarty, what brings you here?" Tenzen asked, as he was preparing to leave.
"I wanted to see whether my wristband can be upgraded in some way," Alex replied.
"Oh?" Tenzen's interest was piqued. "What kind of upgrade are you looking for?"
"You see, I am a spirit master," Alex explained. "I need flying knives and other floating weapons. If the wristband could be upgraded to create over fifty different objects at the same time, it would be far more convenient for me."
"Hm," Tenzen murmured thoughtfully. "I will inform our engineers about your proposal."
He immediately contacted the chief of the technology department.
After a while, Tenzen smiled at Alex.
"You can leave the wristband here. They said it can be done, though it will take some time. Tomorrow is your wilderness practical test, correct? They are confident it can be completed by then. I will have it sent to your hotel."
"Thank you, Mr. Tenzen," Alex said sincerely. "I will take my leave."
Alex entrusted the wristband to Tenzen and returned to his hotel.
However, he had no intention of sleeping that night.
He wanted to combine his space manipulation with his spirit mastery. He wanted to create something truly phenomenal.
After arriving at the hotel, Alex entered the training room and locked it securely. He did not want anyone discovering that he possessed a space manipulation talent.
He took out three obsidian flying knives from his space ring and let them float in front of him.
With a simple movement of his finger, the knives began to move according to his will.
Now came the crucial part.
He wanted to teleport the knives to his desired locations without anyone noticing, then regain control over them the instant they reappeared.
He set up several targets around the room.
Then he put two of the knives aside and began practicing with a single blade.
"Go."
Boom.
At his command, the knife vanished and instantly appeared at the target location.
The moment it reappeared, Alex tried to seize control of it with his mental energy.
But he failed.
"Well, that was expected," he said with a smile, and immediately tried again.
Six hours passed.
Morning arrived.
Yet Alex was still practicing.
Three knives vanished and reappeared across the room, striking targets from different angles like ghosts.
He had fully synchronised space manupulation with spirit mastery.
Normally, spirit masters were already difficult opponents, attacking from multiple directions at once.
But in Alex's case, it became downright lethal.
Ordinary spirit masters' weapons could still be seen and anticipated. Alex's weapons, however, teleported without warning, striking before the enemy could even attempt to defend.
But Alex felt that the space manupulation had far wider range of uses other than teleportation. As it was called space manupulation not teleportation.
But he decided to experiment on then later. He didn't have time now.
Alex smiled and left the training room with satisfaction.
He returned to his room, took a shower, and then went to have breakfast.
"Son, you are training very hard," Elizabeth said with concern. "You are still within mortal limits. Your body needs proper rest. Take care of yourself."
"Thank you, Mom," Alex replied warmly. "I was just a little excited about today's test. That is all."