A Stone Sinks into the Vast Ocean

Itozawa stood at the office door, his hand on the doorknob, ready to enter.

He gently pushed the door open, his gaze quickly scanning the interior, trying to capture any useful information.

The office was dim, lacking light, as if shrouded in a layer of shadow.

The faint light from opening the door was almost the only source, making the scene inside appear even more hazy and unclear.

Teacher Sakagami was nowhere in sight. He seemed to be completely hidden in the gloom, leaving no trace.

Itozawa's intuition told him something was wrong. An ominous premonition rose in his heart.

He didn't rush in. Instead, he stopped and turned to Kanzaki, "Kanzaki, use your mental power to probe. See if Teacher Sakagami is still inside."

Kanzaki nodded, his eyes becoming focused. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate his mental power, trying to sense the situation inside the office.

A moment later, Kanzaki opened his eyes, his brow furrowed slightly. "I sense Teacher Sakagami's mental fluctuation. He's inside. But..." His voice held a hint of hesitation, "His mental fluctuation is strange, very weak, not like his normal state."

Itozawa pondered for a moment, then made a bold suggestion, "Kanzaki, try to attack. See if you can probe the situation inside."

Kanzaki nodded. He concentrated, preparing to unleash his ability. Although his ability wasn't a direct physical attack, mental shockwaves could sometimes produce unexpected results.

However, when his mental shockwave shot into the office, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no response.

Kanzaki's brow furrowed. He tried a few more times, with the same result.

Each attack seemed to be absorbed by an invisible black hole, without causing any ripples.

This made Kanzaki suspect that Teacher Sakagami was likely a Mental Ability User, and his ability might be related to mental defense or absorption.

"It seems my attack had no effect on him," Kanzaki told Itozawa. "His mental power might be very strong, capable of absorbing or defending against my mental attacks. It felt similar to your ability."

Itozawa frowned, his suspicion growing. Could it be that the final form of his ability was to expand the chessboard of his Mind Sea into a Domain?

However, he didn't have time to dwell on that now. He needed to figure out how to gather information from inside.

At this moment, Shibata stepped forward, volunteering, "Let me go in and take a look. My physical abilities are stronger. If his mental ability is strong, he shouldn't be able to defend against my attack."

Itozawa hesitated. Kamuro's physical condition wasn't necessarily poor, yet he was still defeated.

Shibata's idea was too naive.

But in the end, he agreed.

After all, they needed more information to assess the situation, and Shibata's probe might provide the answer.

"Be careful. If anything feels wrong, retreat immediately."

Shibata nodded, took a deep breath, adjusted his state, and cautiously walked into the office.

His body tensed, ready to react to any potential situation. However, just like Kanzaki's mental attack, after Shibata entered, there was no movement from inside. His presence also seemed to vanish into thin air.

The classmates outside began to feel anxious, not knowing what was happening inside the office.

Kanzaki's brow furrowed even tighter. "It seems we're facing some kind of Sealed Field ability. This ability can block external attacks and perception."

Just then, Itozawa sensed something. His perception seemed sharper than before. He could sense that Shibata was being restrained by something.

"Wait," Itozawa said, "Shibata seems to be restrained by something. I think I can vaguely sense his presence."

Kanzaki looked at Itozawa with surprise. "You can actually sense a Sealed Field ability? Your ability's range has expanded, and it's actually stabilized?"

Itozawa's expression was strange. He had a rough idea of why his ability's range had expanded. It might be due to the "feeding" from Kanzaki's mental ability, which had unknowingly enhanced his own.

However, he didn't intend to share this secret with Kanzaki, only nodding mysteriously.

"Yes, so I can roughly sense the changes within the field. Therefore, we can't give up yet. We need to think of a way to break this field and rescue classmate Shibata."