"M-master…?!"
A panicked voice rang out in the starry sky as two people materialized from thin air.
The girl among them stumbled to her knees, supporting herself with mana and calming her rolling internals to at least avoid vomiting.
"Ah, right. I forgot about that," Damien muttered with a wry smile.
Even normal spatial movement was taxing for non-experts. Even though Astoria was also a spatial practitioner now, she wasn't nearly practiced enough to make such a long-distance jump with ease.
"Take your time to stabilize yourself. We still have another jump to make."
"Another one?!" Astoria exclaimed, her face turning pale.
"Relax," Damien said with a smile, "the next one is only a few hundred thousand kilometers. It'll be fine."
"Oh, just a few…few hundred thousand?! Master, are you insane?!"
"What? Is there something wrong with that? The jump we just made was several hundreds of millions of kilometers, you know. We're pretty deep in the Divine Realm right now."
"Ha…haha…r-right…h-hundred…million…haha…Divine Realm…hahaha…" Astoria muttered robotically.
"What're you making a big deal out of? Quickly rest and recuperate so we can jump again."
Damien tried to wave Astoria off with that, but she wasn't so easy to manipulate.
"M-a-s-t-e-r, even though you're my master, it still bugs me that you don't understand what kind of monster you are! If you think like this, how can I ever meet your expe— I mean, slack off more in the future?!" She exclaimed, quickly correcting her slight mistake as she spoke.
"Master, even the Golden Dragon Clan doesn't have the means to travel so far in a single leap. You're basically a personal cross-sector teleportation array! That's an immense power that's completely unique to you!"
Astoria's words were filled with excitement. How could they not be? The more powerful her master was, the better for her training, and the more she'd be able to brag to her acquaintances from other Holy Lands.
However, Damien himself remained unimpressed.
'I know Warp doesn't have enough freedom to just take me wherever I want to be, but I shouldn't spoil this little girl's mood right now.' He thought with a wry smile.
The overactive imagination of his disciple would be a great motivator for her future training.
Besides, even if Damien wasn't quite at the point of freely traversing the universe, he was close enough.
And if it was Astoria, she could definitely surpass his movement capabilities if she worked hard enough in the future.
"Master, Master, what else can you do? I knew you were a secret powerhouse in disguise! What if— blegh…!"
Astoria began enthusiastically rambling again, however, she found her words interrupted as she keeled over and introduced the universe to her breakfast.
Damien sighed and used mana to lift her hair out of her face, patting her on the back gently.
"I told you to rest but you didn't listen. Now look what happened." He scolded lightly.
"I'm sorry…Master…bleurgh!"
Damien smiled to himself at the comedic scene and slowly helped Astoria readjust her body condition.
"I didn't expect you to react so violently now that you've reached your current level. Likely, it's a mental matter rather than a physical one. Therefore, just this once, I'll make an exception."
Aa Damien said, Astoria's body could definitely handle the large jump. And when he said mental problem, he didn't mean that Astoria had some sort of hidden trauma inhibiting her.
Rather…
'Her talent is too high.'
Even though she had barely graduated from the beginner level in Damien's books, her natural talent and affinity made her instinctively attempt to comprehend the mysteries of his methods, leading to the current situation.
After all, Damien's usage of Space Laws far exceeded Astoria's comprehensive ability, and even disregarding that, Damien had recently made a switch so all his techniques would be manifested through the Void rather than his affinities themselves!
When Astoria tried to comprehend this mana, how could she remain unharmed?
It was likely only due to her Void Disciple title that she received such a minute rebound.
Damien wrapped Astoria in his mana and formed a shield for her, ensuring that she wouldn't feel anything during the secondary Warp.
And soon after, the two disappeared once more, leaving only a puddle of…Dragon Clan Breakfast™ floating in the void.
***
"Hm? Waaaaah!"
Splash!
"Fwah!"
Damien and Astoria's new materialization point was above a large body of water. While Damien stood in the air calmly, Astoria seemingly forgot to do so, plummeting into the sea below.
She surfaced soon after and made her way back to Damien, utterly soaked in seawater.
"Hehe~ oopsie!" She said, quirking her head cutely.
Whoosh!
Astoria's figure vanished and reappeared several meters away just as Damien's flick was going to land on her forehead.
"Hmph! Silly Master, I can totally predict you no—ow!"
Without suspense, the smack landed on her forehead, though Damien didn't move to chase her at all.
Horizon Break's concepts were especially in training Astoria.
"Haven't you learned by now? This young master's smacks…can never be stopped! Hahahaha!" Damien proclaimed smugly.
"Damn Master, I'll definitely beat you up one day!"
"Oh? Is that a challenge? Well then, my cute disciple who can't even handle a little bit of teleportation, how do you plan to do that?"
"I-I…hmph, why should I tell you my plan?!"
"Hahaha! Alright, stop joking around. Trouble has come looking for you."
Damien stopped their banter abruptly and glanced in a certain direction, attracting Astoria's gaze as well.
There, the sea was churning violently, on the verge of forming a massive sinkhole.
"Master, that is…" Astoria muttered with a pale face.
"Hmm, that should be the ruler of this territory. He's not very happy with the scene you made when we got here."
"Are you sure it's not because you teleported us into his territory?!"
"Hm? How could that be? No creature could possibly hate a benevolent and magnanimous young master like me."
"Keuk…! Master, I think your words gave me critical damage. I don't think I can fight him."
"Nonsense. I'll be cheering for you on the sidelines, so if you ever want moral support, just look over. I'll flash my most handsome smile to motivate you."
"E-eh? Master, what do you mean by tha-ooooooah!"
"Why do I always get thrown?!" Astoria exclaimed as she flew through the sky, a very familiar feeling to her at this point.
Her current trajectory put her directly in the face of the mysterious monster in the depths.
Damien tossed her perfectly so she'd have no choice but to fight.
'Damn Master! Setting up a Dimensional Cage is unfair!' She thought to herself with a frown.
However, she didn't complain out loud.
Instead, as she watched the massive Kraken-like monster raise its body from the water, as she felt its terrifying aura almost at the late stages of 4th class, she readied her fists and took a combat stance in preparation for the battle to come.
If she could help it, she'd definitely choose to be lazy.
She wanted to play around and tease her master more, not fight against ugly beasts.
However, even she was curious…
Just how much had she grown in the past year and a half?
