--


    Cedric secluded himself to practice in an isted room.


    He ensured that not even a sliver of whatever he''s doing outside would leak out, not because he''s afraid of damaging his surroundings but because he''s practicing spatial maniption. He couldn''t risk being discovered while doing this, or else the Demon Race would never let him know peace.


    Sure, he could''ve entered the true Sword Communion Hall to do this; he just chose not to. Whenever he''s in there, he''s unable to prevent himself from being immersed in the profundity of conceptws. He''d end up spending months in his immersion, getting no practice in, and that just won''t do.


    The application of conceptws is just as important asprehending their profundities. There has to be bnce, or else he''d drive himself into a bottleneck. And at times like this, where he needs to have steady growth, bottlenecks are no good.


    Within this isted space, Cedric performed all the current applications of spacews he had thought of so far.


    He exerts his influence over the fabric of space by twisting, folding, or severing it to see the oue. He also tries to connect one space node to the other, just to see what will happen.


    Most of it resulted in all sorts of space shenanigans.


    Twisting the fabric of space causes a visible distortion. Depending on how many threads he used, how much distortion and damage he could do. Folding them allows him to essentially give him a shortcut to things that''s normally out of his reach. If he wanted to, he could fold space and then puncture it, allowing him to appear on the other side. This was the idea behind teleportation, by the way.


    Set Point A and Point B, treat those as two ends of paper in a sense, and fold them, then exert force to puncture a hole in that folded space, walk through it, and vi! Teleportation!


    As for severing the space fabrics, that causes spatial rifts to appear; this is where spatial maniption starts bing dangerous. A spatial rift essentially sucks everything in. Even Cedric himself does not know what''s on the other side of it. Moreover, even he''s not immune to it. The spatial rifts he creates are just as deadly to himself as they are to his targets.


    Due to this, he doesn''t dare to do this often. Even when he does, he only creates a tiny rift, one that he could immediately mend in case of emergency.


    As his mastery over spatial maniption increases, he''ll eventually reach a point where he no longer has to be afraid of this. But since he''s not at that level right now, he had to be careful.


    The mostplicated part of spatial maniption he''s discovered so far is when he''s dealing with space nodes.


    Think of space nodes as ''pins'' that determine a location. There''s only a handful of space nodes in a given area, and each one is the origin of the ever-inclusive and expansive web of space fabrics. Simply put, ''Pin'' is connected to all sorts of strings, and these strings are the ones that stabilize the space in a given location.


    You can y with strings (fabrics of space), and so long as you give it enough time, it will recover on its own. The same can''t be said with the ''Pins'' (space nodes). If you''re not careful, then it''s highly possible that you will turn that space node into itself, essentially creating a ck hole that will endlessly grow and devour everything you know and love.


    Even if you give Cedric loads of reassurance, he will still be wary about messing with space nodes.


    Cedric will wholeheartedly admit that he''s nowhere skilled or strong enough to control space nodes. Hell, even ordinary ne travelers wouldn''t be able to do that.


    That said, this was the key to his other major goal.


    Once he reaches the minimum requirement of strength and skill to exert control over space nodes, he''ll be able to repair the flimsy spatial integrity of this continent. At that point, he''d even be able to perform a continent-wide spatial lockdown, essentially forbidding anyone except him from messing with the space of this continent.


    If his skill reached a level where he could easily do this, then their enemies could only ever dream of descending directly to his turf. Even if they somehow could, Cedric would know it immediately.


    But that''s a matter for the distant future. For now, Cedric''s content with fusing the elements of space into his offensive and utility skills.


    It''s a lot of work, but that''s nothing new to him.


    Of course, Cedric didn''t neglect the other concepts andws heprehended. Spacews might be one of the more elusive and deeply profound conceptws, but they''re not omnipotent.


    In truth, conceptws can''t be measured by ''rarity'' since all of them are fundamental pieces that make up the world. There''s no ''weaker'' or''stronger''bel on conceptws.


    Sure, a user of Space Laws could ''technically'' iste the space on which a me produced by Fire Laws burns, rendering it useless since it wouldn''t be able to hurt anything within that isted space, but on the same spectrum, the user of Fire Laws could burn the very fabric of space to free it from its cage.


    Someone whoprehended swordws could slice both of these elements, but in that same spectrum, both elements could severely suppress the sharpness of swordws.


    On the other hand, fusing the power of conceptws produces more interesting and, often times, frightening effects.


    Fusing firews and spacews could essentially create a domain—a prison that contains a sea of mes that will incinerate anyone who''s trapped in it. Fusing swordws with spacews might result in a sh that could divide the heavens or the world itself.


    This is what makes conceptwsplicated. They could suppress each other each other or support each other. Sometimes, both can happen at the same time, and it will still produce something noteworthy.


    Currently, Cedricprehends thews of fire, sword, astral, and, recently, space. With the addition of the ughter Concept.


    He has actuallyprehended too many, and there''s not enough time within a day for him to progress on all of them; therefore, he needs to schedule them properly. And this isn''t even including all of the extra things he had to take care of.


    His unparalleledprehension makes up for it. But even with this, he always ends up finding room for improvement.


    In times like this, Cedric wishes he had a time chamber where he could seclude himself for years or decades to focus on mastering his current skills. Sadly, he doesn''t think that their civilization has something like that.


    **


    "Uh...hi?"


    Well, this was certainly awkward.


    It''s been about two and a half weeks since Team Elric returned home. Today, Cedric was notified by Headmistress Lissandra and Archbishop Gabriel that someone wanted to meet him in person.


    When asked, they told him that it was Charles Makarov, also known as the Lifestyle Guild''s Leader—the Tech God—who wanted to meet him.


    This made Cedric feel excited, of course. It''s the tech god. He alone elerated humanity''s natural technological advancement by decades in just a few years. He ushered in the modern era and was rumored to be one of the engineers who created the Ac System, which greatly benefited humanity.


    Cedric had a particr image of what the Tech God looked like. Appearance-wise, he thought that the Tech God would be a tall and rathernky man with sses and an air of intellectual superiority about him. He wouldn''t be surprised if he had any unknown gadgets with him at all.


    However, reality pped the expectations out of him.


    In front of him was a kid—a teenager, to be more specific. Brown hair, a sickly paleplexion, and piercings—lots of them—on the ears, nose, and lips—even his nipples were pierced, not that Cedric would point this out.


    Theboy'' was wearing a loose ck hoodie and a pair of gray sweatpants with sneakers. Nothing about him gives the impression that he''s the''supposedly'' or ''allegedly'' nerdy Tech God. This dude looks and smells like a delinquent fuckboy.


    Cedirc shifted his gaze to the headmistress and gave her an ''are you kidding-me?'' look. But thedy just shrugged at him.


    "BAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"


    The ''boy'' burst out withughter. Nearly rolling on the floor and certainly crying.


    "Oh, this is the best! This just never gets old! Bahahahahaha!!!"


    Cedric blinked at theughing ''boy''. On the side, he spotted Gabriel, who sighed deeply in exhaustion and disappointment.


    "Whew! Okay, pfft! Alright, I''m going to stop! Sheesh!" The boy got up from the floor and grinned at him. He then bowed slightly and said,


    "Greetings, Young Sage. I''m sorry for that just now." A small giggle escaped his lips. "Look no further, and no, they''re not pranking you. I am Charles Makarov, Lifestyle Guild''s Leader and Tech God, if you will. Pleasure to meet''cha!"


    "Oh, um..." Cedric was stupefied; he nkly epted the handshake as he focused his gaze on Charles before saying, "Really?"


    "Pfft! BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"