Faced with the question, Ars did not hold back and asked it outright.
After all, given the current situation, they no longer had the energy to scheme against one another. If there was a problem on the other side, having a straightforward fight would be better than hiding things and plotting against each other like this. At least they could vent some of their hostility. Otherwise, if this continued, the entire group would collapse under the strain.
In response to Ars's question, the other side answered just as bluntly.
"Because we didn't have enough Mental Strength to teleport directly out."
The one who answered was Mechanical Alchemist Amanda, who was in charge of the teleportation this time. She looked extremely weak, yet gazed at Ars with starry-eyed admiration as she said, "Activating the Space Matrix requires an energy device. That underground base had one too, but its energy reserves had long since been depleted. A Shaping Mage had to prepare purified energy for the spatial teleportation. As you know, the energy required by the Space Matrix has to be extremely pure, completely stripped of elemental properties. Although the Arcane Masters of Starfire Academy have all studied Shaping, they're not professional Shaping Department mages after all, so they're not very good at shaping energy."
She paused to catch her breath before continuing. "It wasn't just a matter of preparing the energy. We also had to leave enough Mental Strength to operate the Space Device. We couldn't afford to be careless with such an unfamiliar device, so we had to reserve enough Mental Strength and definitely couldn't operate it at the limit. Being able to teleport this far was already the limit of what we could accomplish at the time."
Hearing this answer, Ars and the others nodded inwardly. The reason was