Without taking a moment to think or confirm what he was seeing, Leo rapidly turned to look at his taming space.
He assumed that the reason he found himself in this unfamiliar place was somehow related to the door within his taming space.
It was when his consciousness had made contact with that door that he had been transported here. Therefore, the door might provide clues to what was happening.
However, when his consciousness descended into his taming space, Leo was met with yet another surprise.
"What in the world is going on?!" Leo practically screamed in his mind when he beheld his transformed taming space.
His taming space no longer contained a radiant lake; instead, it was now filled with nothing but clouds. The ground he stood on was made of clouds, and they stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Yet, amid the sea of clouds, there was something familiar before him – the door that Leo suspected was responsible for his sudden displacement.
It was the back of the door though, and it appeared to be set between a wall of clouds.
In his original taming space, there were no walls, which allowed Leo to see both sides of the door.
In this transformed space, the presence of walls limited Leo's view to the door's back.
'Let's try this again,' Leo thought as his consciousness materialised next to the door.
As Leo's consciousness 'touched' the door, his vision suddenly shifted, and the familiar sucking sensation returned.
A moment later, Leo opened his eyes to find himself back in the store.
"I'm back."
Relieved that he could return, Leo's initial panic subsided.
After taking a few seconds to regain his composure, Leo reflected on what had just occurred.
"What was that?!"
With his hand on his chest, Leo recalled the sequence of events that involved touching the door in his taming space, which led him to an unfamiliar place, and then returning to the store.
'Just what is that door?'
Now that he had calmed himself down, Leo once again began to ponder the origin and purpose of the door in his taming space.
While he had initially been optimistic about its presence, as it reminded him of the golden-fingered cheats that transmigrators often received in the novels he had read, his perspective had now shifted. He was feeling increasingly suspicious of it.
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Leo turned to check the time.
Leo noted that it was just a couple of minutes before 10 a.m.
Although he was deeply concerned about the mysterious door in his taming space and the unfamiliar place it had transported him to, Leo realised that he still had business matters to attend to.
For one, he needed to call some people to restock the items that were running low in the store.
While this was something he could do immediately to save time, Leo's worries and curiosity took precedence, although his taming space was also a priority.
'I'll just check it out for a while and come back to it later.'
The 'it' in question was the mysterious door in his taming space.
With a deep breath, Leo allowed his consciousness to sink back into his taming space.
A moment later, he found himself within his familiar miniature world, complete with a lake and devoid of the clouds that had been present a short while ago.
This was a relief for Leo. However, the door remained.
As he observed his surroundings, Leo also noticed something strange about his consciousness.
It felt as if there was a connection, giving him a vague sensation of standing up with the breeze brushing against his face. Leo 'felt' something, which should be impossible given his current form.
After all, in his gaseous representation, he shouldn't be able to 'feel' anything.
The ability to 'touch' the door earlier was one thing, but now he was experiencing something even more unusual.
'What is happening again?' Leo pondered, his confusion growing.
Leo's thoughts grew increasingly absorbed in the peculiar situation he found himself in.
At this point, he had momentarily forgotten about the matters concerning the shop.
While Leo recognized the importance of his business, he had unconsciously shifted his priorities.
Currently, Leo was focused on understanding why he was experiencing sensations that should be beyond his reach, as they weren't occurring to his physical body.
Even if he were to experience sensations, they should pertain to his real body outside his taming space. Yet, the sensations Leo was currently encountering felt distinct.
His body in the store wasn't standing, and yet a part of Leo felt as though it were.
'What is going on?'
And then, a realisation struck him like a lightning bolt.
'Wait... Wait! Don't tell me it's actually that?!'
It didn't take long for Leo to piece together that this was the position his body occupied in that other world, and how it felt the wind.
While he wasn't 'there' in the flesh, he could still vaguely sense it.
It appeared that a connection had indeed been established between his consciousness and the body he had left behind in that unfamiliar place.
Recognizing this, Leo became deeply concerned and fell into profound contemplation.
Leo couldn't help but wonder why something in his taming space had changed. He contemplated whether his transmigration into this body had caused alterations in his taming space.
Leo also pondered the door's ability to transport him to another location. He suspected that the place he had been taken to was likely another world, given the figures he had seen in the sky moments ago.
'I can only relate humans flying on swords to one thing, and that's cultivators. But that would mean the place the door took me to is another world entirely, and not just some random location in this pet world.'
Then again Leo thought, I'm not all-knowing about this world either, and what I do know comes from the original owner's memories.
While thinking about these matters, Leo gazed at the wooden door in his taming space.
'Nah. I'm not doing that again.'
The idea of testing whether the door would transport him to the other world once more crossed Leo's mind.
'No! I'm not going near that door again for a while.'
Leo's internal struggle continued as he violently shook his 'head,' as if attempting to banish unwanted thoughts from his mind.
Despite his efforts though, Leo's attention remained fixated on the wooden door at the centre of his taming space.
'Since I came back the last time, I should be able to do it again, right?!'
'Ugh!'
'Damn thoughts!'
In the end, Leo's curiosity got the better of him, and he made the decision to take the risk.
A mere second later, Leo found himself back in the wilderness.
With his heart pounding in his chest, Leo swiftly turned to glance at his taming space and saw the back of the same door he had observed earlier in that other world.
Without pausing to think, he used his consciousness to touch the door, returning his consciousness to his body in the pet store.
'I'm back. I can really come back,' Leo thought, a sense of relief evident on the edge of his lips.
The realisation that he could return safely heightened Leo's curiosity.
'Curiosity kills the cat, Leo. Curiosity kills the cat, Leo. This is already enough for today, sir.'
Yet, despite these cautionary thoughts, Leo's curiosity ultimately won out in the end.
With the previous safe experiences of going between both worlds unscathed, Leo grew bolder.
Leo confirmed that he could go back and forth between the two worlds using only his consciousness.
Leo also made two intriguing discoveries.
One, Leo realised that as long as he concentrated well enough, he could always sense the state of his body's surroundings in both worlds.
In the other world, he could feel his other body sitting still on the counter chair in the pet store. And when he was in the pet store, he could feel the other body standing, sensing the fresh breeze brushing his face.
Leo still harboured some doubts about how closely his two 'bodies' were connected to his consciousness.
To test his theory, Leo set an alarm on his phone to ring in the next minute and then returned to the world on the other side of the door in his taming space.
As he waited in that world, Leo began to vaguely hear a sound in his ears.
The sound resembled a whisper, but Leo recognized it as the alarm he had set back in the pet store.
With Leo growing more at ease and comfortable with the realisation of the door in his taming space, he couldn't help but smile slightly when his experiment yielded results.
'Let's confirm it first.'
When his consciousness returned back to his body in the store, Leo verified that it was indeed his alarm ringing.
The second discovery was something that stunned Leo for a long while.
Aside from acting as a passage to the other world, his Taming Space also acted like a storage space.
Yes, Leo could store material things in his Taming Space. He had tried it with his phone, something that should not be possible if it was not a pet, related to a pet or was a magical item.
'My Taming Space has changed so much and there might even be more changes I'm unaware of. Thankfully there's no visible danger currently.'
Pleased with these two discoveries, especially the ability to feel his bodies, as it meant he would be alerted if someone entered the store due to the bell behind the entrance door that would ring when someone entered, Leo took a deep breath and decided to thoroughly explore the world in his taming space this time.
Before leaving, Leo set a timer on his phone to determine if there was a time difference or if both worlds shared the same time so he would know when he returned.
At this point, Leo had completely forgotten about his business responsibilities.