Anomalous Lake

 As he headed towards the light, he was presented with a lot of obstacles, each one was... well, bizarre is the best word to describe it.

 Most of the things he had seen were mind-boggling, showing the effect on reality if someone messed around with the three Laws. From something like a seed growing into a tree before reverting back to a seed in a matter of seconds, to the more plain but still troubling sight of huge floating rocks, a few hundred meters in the air.

 He took it all in stride, as he did wish to be stuck in the place longer. He should take the chance to increase his mastery of the three Paths, no matter how hard and how long it would take.

-x-

 As he traversed through the quiet and dreary landscape, he began to look for ways to entertain himself, as he would go crazy if he didn't do so. He decided to play a little game with himself, moving on the floating boulder and walking on it instead of trying to stabilize the anomalies.

 Only after walking through it did he begin to stabilize the anomalies, increasing his comprehension of Law of Gravity.

 As for the spatial rifts, he took a spear out of his storage ring, though there is some resistance, likely the two different spaces slightly repelling one another.

 When he managed to take it out, he poked the spear inside, watching with amusement as the spear tip emerged from another spatial rift. Of course, he took the caution of making sure no spatial rifts were behind him, as that would result in... catastrophic accident.

 As for the time anomalies, he did try to play around with them with the exception of throwing some seeds into them, watching as they grew from a seed to a flower in seconds though they also died in seconds too, the flowers withering right after becoming one.

 After that, he began to watch carefully for time anomalies, as it was not one he wanted to mess around. 

 Of course, some anomalies caused by the disturbance on Law of Gravity and Space can be dangerous. For the former, it was highly gravitational areas that could cause one to have their spine broken if they were not able to withstand the intense gravity. For the latter, spatial rifts that opened and closed on their own, plus rifts that will sever one's body just by walking past it.

 When he is faced with such dangerous anomalies, his only option is to stabilize it, as playing around near such danger is beyond suicidally stupid. Of course, it is also harder to stabilize, forcing him to use his qi and the related Cultivation Art and Laws to deal with it.

 The only thing he got out of it was that his comprehension of the Law of Time, Space, and Gravity had been greatly improved, though it still needed one last push before it could reach the next mastery level.

 He looked at the light, watching as he slowly got close to it. He felt both excited and apprehensive, excited due to the fact his way out was getting closer and closer, while apprehension was caused by the reminder of memory, which told him of the last obstacles, one that would likely be the last thing between him and escape.

 He let out a huff and took a deep breath. He get this far for this long, though he didn't know long he was here as there is no sun or moon to determine the day-night cycle, screwing his perspective of time in the process.

 Nevertheless, he will get out of here and nothing can stop him!

-x-

 Ryker let out a sob of despair, being stopped by the final obstacle. The current obstacle took the form of a lake, though to him, thanks to his Soul Sense being able to detect anomalies easier, it's more like a death trap, with emphasis on death.

 Even though the prize seems like a swim away, being located at an island a the center of the lake, doing so could kill him faster than facing an actual Genesis Sea expert, it was that dangerous. 

 The lake was filled with anomalies, whether on the water or below it, there is no place untouched by anomalies. And that is not even the worst part!

 The worst part of it all is the fact the anomalies seemed to be intertwined, making him unable to stabilize it as the other anomalies would undo all of his hard work.

 He had decided to see the effect of the intertwined anomalies, throwing a rook into the lake. He was then forced to watch as the rock floated, cut into pieces, and then turned into dust, in that exact order.

 He wanted to tell in frustration. Why was the last obstacle so hard?! It was almost impossible to be passed through unless one had mastered the three Pa-

 Ryker's eyes widened, a new thought filling his head. Maybe the reason there are so many anomalies in the three Paths is because the previous king wished for the younger generation to be able to master the three Paths.

 If so, then the standard is really high but if someone could achieve such a thing, then the Kilrun Duchy would benefit greatly from it. He let out a sigh, eying the lake one last time before retreating hoping to find other anomalies first.

 If his current comprehension is not enough, then he had to do better, maybe increasing his mastery of the three Paths to do Elementary Understanding first, or at least close to it before he began the process of stabilizing the lake he dubbed as 'Anomalous Lake' though he would prefer to call it some rather... uncouth name.

 As he walked away, he hoped his family would be fine. Who knew how long he had been gone and how will they react?

-x-

 Ina let out a sigh. Ryker had been missing for nearly two weeks now, and that was when they counted from when the guards told them he was missing.

 The only thing she and the others managed to glean from the guards was that the bandits had been attacking the hidden realm, causing some damage and stopping Ryker from exiting the hidden realm.

 With him being stuck there for who knows how long, the group had been in a rather depressed mood, for the adults and the elder four. The younger ones didn't know of their eldest brother's current state, less they became sad as well.

 Only their childish disposition is the reason why they could keep on going, their bright smiles and sheer happiness helping them pass the day and giving them hope that he would be able to escape his current predicament.