?


    Now that the conversation was over, Daimon stood up from the bench and then entered the mansion to see how were the girls doing.


    As he walked through the main corridor Daimon realized why this mansion is out of limits for everyone besides Jasmine and Aurora under normal circumstances.


    The moment he set a foot inside, he noticed a wave of mana scanning him and with his infinity eyes he saw some weird symbols appearing on the walls for a split of a second, then fire, light and lightning mana was released into the atmosphere.


    "Did this thing scanned me and then released mana that fit the affinities I''m currently using in public?", said Daimon.


    It wasn''t really helpful for him since he can''t advance in his mage path due to his magic core taking its sweet time absorbing all the mana it swallows every day exactly at midnight.


    But for others this is quite helpful, the mana in the atmosphere is element less mana, and depending on the nearby environment, mana of certain elements is more or less abundant besides the pure mana.


    For example, since the Flying Citadel is floating high in the air, outside there is an abundance of wind mana, since it is a sunny day there is also a considerable amount of light and fire mana.


    In truth all the elements of mana are in the atmosphere in a small or big proportion depending on the case, but the mana being released by the walls of the mansion, isn''t the raw mana of the nature.


    But mana that has been previously refined making it easier for mages to absorb it and integrate it into their magic cores, in other words cultivating inside this mansion will bring double the results with half the effort.


    Naturally to do that mana crystals of the respective elements were needed, not to mention the neutral mana crystals needed to power the formations, essentially this mansion started burning money the very moment someone set a foot inside of it.


    And since right now there were people with a variety of affinities, the consumption of mana crystals must be pretty high, though there must be a regtor to not help mages from a certain realm and above, in order to save resources.


    Aurora probably invited them here, because there is no use in hoarding resources when there is a possibility that the world ends, it''s better to use them to help those who have the opportunity to change the future of Neptune, get stronger even if it is just a bit.


    Daimon kept walking until he found the corridor from which the voices of the girls could be heard, to his surprise there was a single door in that whole corridor, his supposition turned out to be right, he opened the door and was weed with the sight of a lot of pretty girlsughing and chatting in a singlerge room with many beds.


    "You sure have gotten used to share a room", he mumbled.


    "Isn''t it better like this, we are going to be risking our lives together anyway~", yfully said Aisha.


    Daimon chuckled, judging by his mother''s cunning smile and the fact that the Risha sisters were looking at everything but him, it was obviously those four''s doing, but as long as they were having a good time then it was fine for him.


    "I''ll go take a small walk, don''t ck and take advantage of this perfect environment created by the mansion", said Daimon, he put his mask on again and then proposed to leave, but Yvonne''s voice made him stop for a second.


    "Don''t take too long, we are going to prepare something to eat", she said with a tinge of shyness in her voice.


    Daimon could see Aisha giggling at the back, but he still nodded.


    "Sure, I''ll return in an hour at most", he said, making the three sisters smile, it''s been sometime since they had the chance to cook for Daimon.


    The other girls also showed some curiosity towards preparing food by themselves, the room is filled with princesses and young misses from noble families, so they aren''t used to daily chores such as cooking, which made it a new experience for them.


    An opportunity Aisha naturally won''t let go to waste.


    "Come, we all can prepare something together", she said.


    Daimon closed the door behind him trying not to think on what was that mother of his plotting this time.


    He instead walked through the mansion trying to see if he could find something that gets his attention, earlier he saw those strange symbols for a split of a second, and he couldn''t recognize them nor understand them.


    It''s not that weird, considering he experienced something simr from the very beginning when he entered Neptune through that ck stone corridor, which was full to the brim with inscriptions in anguage he couldn''t understand.


    But while those symbols were ominous and of a red color, the ones he saw earlier were white colored and gave off a gentle and calm sensation.


    He already asked the queen about it, and she lent him a book with aption ofnguages used in Neptune, which he has finished reading already, but none was simr to the symbols of the ck corridor, and the same happened with those white symbols he saw earlier.


    After not being able to find anything in the mansion, Daimon decided to take a look outside, he literally had the entire inner ring for himself anyway, so he could stroll around if he wanted to.


    But as he was about to reach the exit, he felt a presence behind of him, naturally it wasn''t an enemy but the princess of the Light Pce, in other words Jasmin.


    "Did something happen?", asked Daimon as he saw Jasmin''s slightly flushed face.


    "Ahem, cooking… isn''t one of my strong points, besides cleaning the ingredients with light I can''t do much, and the things in the kitchen of the mansion are already of the best quality, Cassy told the others of my previous tries to make something and they didn''t even want me to stay in the kitchen with them", she said with a pout.


    "So, I thought of tagging along with you, unlike my cooking my exploration skills are really good, I was thest person to discover something in the citadel was me after all, so what do you say?", she asked.


    Daimon softlyughed, he could imagine Jasmin burning a bowl of cereal, but he didn''t judge, since he is also not exactly skilled in that aspect, luckily, he has the inventory where he can store recently made dishes forter, or he would have to rely in dry rations like everyone else when in hostile territory, where using a storage ring might give away your position.


    Leaving that aside, Daimon didn''t know Jasmin was thest person to ever discover something new in the citadel and Aurora for some reason didn''t mention it.


    "Sure, then take me to what you discovered to see if we can find something else", said Daimon, making Jasmine smile.<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    …


    Outside of the mansion, he realized that they had already started advancing, it''s just that the movement of the Citadel is so smooth that the ones residing on it didn''t notice it, there was an invisible spherical barrier protecting the Citadel, to prevent flying magic beast from attacking them, and also to protect it from air resistance.


    ''The barrier of this thing is much more refined than the one Liz was able to deploy in the flying ship'', thought Daimon as they walked through the city.


    With Jasmine''s guide, Daimon walked into one of the many recreational areas of the city, which consisted in a small forest with an artificialke in the center.


    "We need to enter theke to see it, only Cassy who was with me when we found it and grandma know of this", said Jasmine as she pointed at the center of theke, which though deep, the water was so clear that the bottom could be seen from above.


    Daimon nodded and then he snapped his fingers, water mana gathered from all over the area inrge quantities, which made Jasmine''s eyes sparkle.


    ''This strong mana gathering is akin to those at the peak of the mortal realms'', she thought.


    And she was right, though Daimon''s mana core is rebellious when ites to advance, it doese with its advantages, one of them being that since the moment Daimon started cultivating in the mage path, it automatically gathered by mana without the need of him to do anything, an ability, others only get after reaching the Arch ranks, also his mana gathering speed is on the same level as one, naturally his reserves aren''t, unless he uses Core Synchrony of course.


    And now it was proving its usefulness, because this water affinity he got is different than normal, with that strong mana gathering speed, it still took him around ten seconds to gather a single drop of the ck water that took the Empress by surprise earlier.


    With the drop of ck water floating on top of his hand, Daimon turned to see Jasmine and then said.


    "Let''s dive into theke", without letting Jasmin saying anything he started walking towards theke, which made her shrug, she was about to suggest him to call Liliana, with her ice she could make a bubble so they didn''t get wet, but since Daimon didn''t seem to mind, she neither.


    But to her surprise the fresh sensation of the water she expected didn''te to her when she jumped into theke right behind Daimon.


    "What is this?", she asked.


    To her surprise the water didn''t approach them, as if there was something pushing it away, a sphere of around ten meters of diameter formed around them, preventing the water from touching them.


    Daimon was also surprised, he just did this on a whim, since he wanted to try out this water affinity of his.


    [Royal Water Affinity (Exclusive to those who possess "Ruler of the Sea"): Allows the host to control the water element exclusive to Drakolevia]


    That simple message was the only hint Daimon had regarding this water affinity he won after he took a bath with the three-colored water, and his body absorbedrge quantities of it, as well as some drops of the water of the Northern Sea.


    There was no exnation on what it could do, but when he thought of a way to not get wet, his instincts urged him to gather a drop of that ck water.


    Not only the drop of ck water was keeping the normal water away from them, Daimon felt like a fish in the sea, with just wishing it, the bubble in which he and Jasmine were, moved through the water without any resistance, it was as if the other water followed hismand and pushed them in the direction he wanted.


    The best thing was that Daimon wasn''t using mana for this, besides the initial price he had to pay to gather the drop of ck water of course, that being said with his infinity eyes he could notice that small almost unnoticeable bits of the ck drop were disappearing with each second that passed since they entered theke.


    Leaving this interesting discovery regarding Daimon''s newest acquired affinity, Jasmine pointed at a small rock formation at one of the most isted parts at the bottom of theke.


    "Over there, behind those rocks", she said.


    Daimon nodded and then he made the bubble move in that direction, he tried to use mana sense earlier and even ask Rita to give it a try, but he couldn''t find anything, it made sense though, this Flying Citadel even its current weakened state can resist the attacks from Maximum Ster ranked.


    There was a limit to how much he could ignore even with his cheat-like skills like infinity eyes, but that also gave him some important information, this magic treasure was in the same category as Disaster, which meant he couldn''t inspect it as of current even with the system, for example when he stored Disaster in the inventory, it showed no description besides "Temporal residence of a soulmate", despite the fact that he supposedly got to know the origin of Disaster, out of Aura and Erin''s mouths, and it was confirmed by Narasha herself too.


    Once they reached their destination, Jasmine crouched down near one small rock and tapped it with her finger, the rock sank into the ground a bit and then some of those white symbols appeared, just like before Daimon only had time to steal a gaze at them and he couldn''t understand a thing about them.


    After the symbols disappeared, the floor of the bottom of theke on which the symbols appeared, waved and then a que formed.


    "Last time I brought grandma here and we tried everything we could to get this thing to show a reaction but nothing happened, we even let some drops of our blood fall on it, since we thought it might require to be imed as ours, but it was futile".


    Daimon nodded, he tried it with his blood, maybe this treasure was rted to the hero, who knows it could be a gift given to the matriarch of the Light Pce, and since he also has the ck Armored shark lineage it could work.


    Unfortunately, the result was the same as Jasmine said, there was no reaction, he tried with all the things he could think off, including his ck Sea Emblem and the pendant the queen gave him, but there was no response.


    ''Damn it, the first time I want something to work as if I''m in a fantasy story and this happens, of course it couldn''t be easy right'', he thought.


    His instincts told him that this que was important, but they didn''t give him any hint on how to activate it or something, and all the methods he had in hand like the infinity eyes and his abnormally sharp mana sense didn''t work too, so there was nothing much he could do.


    Since they couldn''t do anything else and the drop of ck water was about to disappear, Daimon and Jasmine returned to the surface.


    From the highest point of the citadel, Aurora looked through a window and saw her granddaughtering out of ake with Daimon and she sighed.


    "Thatss sure has be more rebellioustely, what "I want to show him my discoveries myself"... whatever as long as she is doing what she wants instead of being controlled by some shady bastard then everything is fine", she mumbled.