Ch 27 – A Magician’s Trick 

"Rank 3—Mending Space Gu?" Kaleido muttered the Gu Worm's name after a slight pause.

His eyebrows were raised high, and he couldn't help but have his heart beat in excitement.

This was it! After failing for nearly an hour of searching, he finally found the Gu he was looking for!

'Unfortunately, it's ranked higher than my cultivation level, so it may be incompatible in actual practice. But beggars can't be choosers. The only problem here is that the price might be higher than what I have saved up.' Kaleido sent his consciousness inside the ever-present formless bubble that hung around his body, bending light ever so slightly that it became invisible to the naked eye.

Once one reaches master attainment in a path, their usage of Gu transforms into the level of art. Using a GU primarily meant for storage, and through his own skill, allowed it to not only be used for defense by restricting the absorbing function and tightening the bubble, but it can also be used to warp light using the properties of space.

Seeing his own little pile of primeval essence stones, he gulps and turns towards the price of the Gu.

'1000 primeval essence stones?!' Kaleido's mouth gawked in shock, and his heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

Taking in a deep breath, he stabilized his calm exterior and walked towards the counter of the store.

"What can I help with you, sir?" The female receptionist smiled amicably. From her aura, Kaleido can sense her obvious Rank 2 strength.

'Hmm, Rank 2. Fortunately, there are not that many widespread methods to hide one's own aura, so using her as a basis, the danger should be pretty low.' Kaleido's muscles tensed up unknowingly under his cloaked figure as he neared the counter.

Without showing any hints of nervousness, an ability he gained after all the gruesome and tough situations he faced in this cruel world, he calmly said with a deep voice, "Mending Space Gu."

"Oh, you would like to buy our Rank 3—Mending Space Gu? That's great! Let me just get it for you," the lady happily responded and, through some weird methods, turned to the wall behind her and pressed her arm against it.

From the wall, a square hole opened up, and primeval essence was poured into it.

Using an unknown mechanism, Kaleido saw a black box slide right into her open palm that rested right below the square hole, and opening it, Kaleido saw the Mending Space Gu inside a glass enclosure.

Putting the glass enclosure back into the black box for further protection of the fragile Gu, the lady smiled and said, "That would be a thousand primeval essence stones, sir."

"Mmm," Kaleido nodded his head without pause, and as he grabbed the brown leather pouch from his waist, he threw it towards the lady swiftly without any hint of respect.

Startled by this, she subconsciously focused all of her attention on the leather pouch and went to stretch her hand out and grab it from mid-air.

At that very moment, a certain memory flashed through Klein's mind as his white eye seemed to glow dimly, dilating his sense of time that everything seemed to come to a halt.

…

"Look here, Kaleido!" Kaleido, who can be seen as a young child with slightly tanned skin and a slightly chubby body, turned his head towards a certain girl who sat beside him.

"What is it?" He asked the girl, wondering what she was going to show him.

Grabbing the coin resting on the desk, she slowly dragged it over to her open left palm and, using her thumb and index finger that grabbed the coin, put it in the middle of her open left palm and closed it.

Now having both of her fingers and the coin entrapped by closing her left palm, she began to vigorously shake her hand, and opposite to her, Kaleido's eyes were fully focused on her shaking left hand.

'What is she trying to do?' Kaleido wondered with childlike curiosity at this series of mysterious actions done by the girl.

As she saw her hands stop, he watched as the girl opened her palm and released both of her fingers, only to see…

"Where did the coin go?!" Kaleido asked, shocked by this sudden twist.

"Hehe," laughing smugly, the girl rotated her hand and showed that the coin rested behind her hand!

"H-How?!" Kaleido asked.

Even if Kaleido may have had a few loose screws as a teenager, he was still once a normal young boy, so seeing this magical action done by the girl, it was as if he has seen true magic!

"A magician never reveals her secret~" the girl responded mysteriously.

As the scene shattered, he focused once again on the situation at hand and couldn't help but chortle inside his mind.

'That girl…' Kaleido sighed as he felt nostalgia.

'But that did make me interested in magic for a period of time in my life. Due to that, I have grasped a fundamental law in "magic" back on Earth—it's that one must grasp fully grasp the attention of the target and hide the truth from their sight!'

Without any ounce of hesitation, using his master attainment in space path, he activated a Gu and space seemed to warp for a split second.

Time seemed to regain its normal flow, and the girl caught the pouch in the next second.

As an experienced receptionist, she can already guess the number of primeval essence stones just by the weight of the pouch alone, so she can safely say that it's only over a hundred primeval essence stones, and was far from the 1000 primeval essence stones price of the Mending Space Gu.

"Sir-" as she was about to call out Kaleido for this obvious lack of money, Kaleido cut her off and responded.

"Take that as a down payment while I gather the remaining money. I only brought around a hundred primeval stones on me, and I should return a few hours later. If anyone else wants to buy that Gu, say that I have already reserved it for myself," Kaleido explained and turned around, ignoring the stupefied woman.

Leaving the store in the next second, the girl sighed at this rather eccentric customer and stored the pouch inside a hidden part of the counter.

Just as she was about to put the black box somewhere near her or back into the square hole in the wall, a certain thought suddenly popped into her mind, 'I should check the Gu… just in case.'

As she slowly pulled open the black cover of the box, her eyes widened and her mouth opened wide in shock as she saw something shocking.

Inside the box, the Gu was missing!

In the next moment, she hurriedly cried out while leaping over the counter, "Everyone, the man wearing the black cloak is a thief! Catch him!"

As if they were all enraged by the thief, all of the Gu Masters who were affiliated with the store rushed out of the entrance and onto the street.

"Catch him, catch that bastardly thief!"

…

Under the shadows of the night, Kaleido watched as a group of people rushed out of the store and spread out everywhere into the nearby streets and alleys, sneering at them with a smug smile.

'Ha! It worked!' Kaleido held back the urge to laugh madly and hurriedly sneaked away from the periphery of the store.

Dropping down into a faraway alley and halting his fall through the control of the formless bubble that covered his body, he briskly and carefully entered the crowded streets and went towards the place where his hotel is located at.

As he passed by crowd after crowd, he couldn't help but contemplate and remember what he did back then to successfully get Mending Space Gu.

…

A few minutes earlier.

As the woman focused all of her attention on the brown pouch flying in midair full of primeval essence stones, Kaleido, with his immense thinking speed, carefully poured his primeval essence into the Displace Domain Gu inside his aperture.

Feeling the power coursing through it, the Gu shone and Kaleido felt his perception expand and solidify, creating a nigh-omniscient viewpoint for him.

Seeing the Gu hidden inside the black box in the woman's hand, he carefully and methodically used Displace Domain Gu to warp the space around the Mending Space Gu's body.

Exerting his skills to the limit, his art-like mastery over space path showed its splendor, and without the woman noticing, the Gu immediately appeared within his palm in the next moment.

"Take that as a down payment while I gather the remaining money. I only brought around a hundred primeval stones on me, and I should return a few hours later. If anyone else wants to buy that Gu, say that I have already reserved it for myself."

Turning his body around, he hid his palm that held the struggling but weakened Gu Worm and left the vicinity of the store with a flash of dim black light.

'I shouldn't have used Displace Domain Gu back then to teleport away from the area as it would leave its aura, meaning they can probably deduce that I have used a space path Gu that can teleport me and other objects into another location.' Kaleido noticed some problems from his successful attempt at thievery and sighed.

'I'm still inexperienced when it comes to things like this, but I'm slowly getting better. Just you wait, "It", once I'm strong enough, I'll fight any threat you bring to me without fear!' Kaleido clenched his fist and swept his cold gaze at the entrance of his hotel.

Entering the hotel, he was greeted by the woman behind the counter, greeting him once again with her amicable smile, "Good evening, Kal Eido."

"Good evening to you too," Kaleido smiled, his black cloak already vanishing the moment he got out of the periphery of the trading sector of Lo Clan City.

As she stared at Kaleido leaving the area, she can't help but notice the slight peculiarity of his clenched right fist.

Walking up the stairs, Kaleido feels his heart pounding as he rushed towards his room as soon as his spatial perception told him that there was no one in the immediate vicinity.

'Gu also has their own aura, and this is a Rank 3 Gu! While I did my best to hide its aura by covering it with the Rank 2 Formless Bubble Gu's aura, it is still of higher rank, meaning its aura can still be felt!' Kaleido went up floor after floor, his heart pounding while cold sweat formed over his back as if death was just right around the corner wherever he goes.

But as he saw his door, he can't help but feel hope and directly ran forward without care. Pulling the door wide open and slamming it close upon entering it, he stared around his empty dark room with wary eyes and turned on the lights.

Sensing that no intruder was hiding inside his room, he lets out a sigh of relief and stared at the Gu in his clenched fist.

"Success…" Kaleido relaxed, walked towards his bed, and sat down with a soft thud.

Feeling his rapidly beating heart ease up and calm down, he swiftly extended his formless bubble to cover the entire room to ensure his safety.

Next, he stared at the Gu in his hand and couldn't help but be fixated on its strong aura and high rarity, 'A healing type space path Gu, and Rank 3 on top of that. With the amplification brought by my Cosmic Great Evolution extreme physique, it is stronger than most Rank 3 Gu, maybe once I reach Rank 3, then it would be as strong as a Rank 4 Gu!'

Without any time to waste, his primeval essence poured out like an endless river, and a battle of wills erupts between man and Gu!

AN: This chapter has 2011 words.

Perhaps space path is really meant for people who like to steal.

Anyways, your author received an anonymous letter so I decided to act down bad and sent an anonymous letter in response. I don't care if they see it or not, I already assumed they were just trolling so who cares.

But if they aren't trolling, then congratulations because my counter attack that was just me acting down bad as hell online would perhaps be your ray of hope if you do realize that it was mine.

And considering it's valentines, I might just write a sweet little short story once I get back home as a little treat to helpless romantics.

Remember to send power stones, seb to libary, n koment tots bilo.

(January 29, 2023 – 430th day of writing)