Garden Trial

Dago flew for some time after leaving Bernal's base before finally landing on a flat, open stretch of grass. There was a small lake on the grassland, its water so calm and bright that it resembled a mirror.

He circled the lakeshore once before stopping beside a patch of aquatic plants thick with reeds.

Bernal had told him that the entrance to this secret realm was strange. It drifted and shifted from time to time, yet never left the lake's boundaries. Finding it always took some effort. Dago narrowed his eyes, spread out his Mental Force Field, and activated the Dimensional Detection Technique to examine the water before him.

The lake's surface was tranquil, lying in the shadow cast by the reeds that blocked the direct sunlight. Several water striders floated on the surface, while the occasional large fish drifted slowly beneath. In his previous life, fishing enthusiasts would have been ecstatic at the sight.

As his Mental Force Field seeped beneath the water, faint fluctuations of spatial energy particles immediately spread out. Then his mental force vanished, as though something had swallowed it.

Bernal had been right. There really was an entrance to a secret realm here. Separated by nothing more than a layer of water, the entrance was concealed so perfectly that it left almost no trace. Such a method was simply incredible, far more sophisticated than any secret realm entrance Dago had ever seen.

Without wasting words, Dago wrapped his body in his Mental Force Field, stepped onto the water, and jumped directly into the lake. There was no sound of splashing, not even a ripple. He sank silently through the lake's surface.

Light and shadow shifted like a dream. When the scene before Dago's eyes stabilized again, he had arrived somewhere else. It was a small