Thief of Time

“It hurts, but we need to persist on…” Schwarz looked at the bowl of lifestones with milk poured on them, and then made a face. “Damnit. Why am I feeling so pained despite being given all these advantages?”

With a miserable face, he dug into the bowl of lifestones and shovelled another spoonful into his mouth. His face twisted a moment later, but Schwarz forced his mouth shut to prevent the lifestones from falling out. His entire body shuddered involuntarily as the once-euphoric rush of lifeforce flooded his very being, before finally opened his mouth to retch.

Given that his stomach was largely empty, all this retching only served to make Dia and the others nauseous.

“Blergh.”

“Stop it,” Farah replied testily. She, like Schwarz and the other Seekers of Life, were having breakfast. Of course, breakfast was pretty much lifestones, the same things they had been forcefed the entire night while asleep.

It had been that way for the past month, and while Dia had built up some resistance to eating something so sweet, thanks to her memories, the others didn’t quite have the same privilege…

“We’re supposed to feel happy about this,” Schwarz muttered, “but I just feel utterly sickened. Blergh.”

“It’s our last day already, so just suck it up and eat as much as you can,” Dia replied, ladling a spoonful of milk with lifestones into her mouth. Everyone here had gained around one thousand years or so after eating lifestones for an entire month, which was just around enough to create the fifth and sixth mana circuit. In fact, her father wanted everyone to become a hexa-folder before they returned to Licencia.

Risti lowered her bowl. “So, you nervous?”

“Me?” Dia asked. “About what?”

“You must have forgotten about the Distortion that you were supposed to handle, then,” Risti replied. “You know? A Distortion that would wipe out the whole of Istrel? Excuse me?”

“…Right.” Dia made a face. “I think I’ll be fine. I mean, I have enough lifespan to push for my seventh mana circuit too. Just for safety’s sake, you know.”

“That’s a lot of lifespan…”

Dia nodded. “But it’s worth it. After all, if I can become a high-ranked folder, there’s no way that Distortion in Licencia can defeat me. My Domain of Swords will become a nightmare for that Distortion, with each sword wielding the strength of my full strike.”

“Considering the number of swords that thing conjures, that’s true…anyway, how’s your progress so far?”

“I’m closing in on completing my sixth mana circuit,” Dia replied. As it turned out, her inordinately high Mana Control Proficiency was doing her a lot of wonders when it came to improving her mana circuits, and—

“Hold on. Just how did Claud and Lily improve so quickly, then?” Dia muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“Not in terms of lifestones, sure. I’m talking about how mana circuits are formed,” Dia replied. “I mean, these two somehow managed to form their mana circuits in what seemed to be their first try or something, based on their speed. It’s…incomprehensible, in my opinion. Just how did they become hexa-folders? We spent an entire month being force-fed like this, but they sure didn’t say anything about that…”

“Maybe they’ve found another way of absorbing lifestones in a really quick manner,” Risti suggested.

“That’s probably it, then.” Dia sighed. “They could at least have told us how to do that, right?”

“Blergh.”

Dia glanced at Schwarz. “See what I mean? Schwarz wouldn’t be suffering like this if—”

“Blergh.”

“And Farah too, apparently.” Risti shook her head. “Well, you guys will get used to it. I had to get used to it on my own terms too, you know…it’s fortunate that my tongue isn’t as sensitive as the others. Anyway, now that this one month is up, I suppose we can focus on our mana circuits. Have you guys been forming your mana circuits too?”

Schwarz pushed his now-empty bowl of lifestones and milk away, before nodding. “Yeah.”

He sniffed miserably, in a manner that reminded Dia of a child who had been forced to eat some veggies, and she had to hide a smile. It was a bit adorable to see Schwarz behaving like a child, but again, the way the little Moonlit toddlers waddled around was also good for her heart.

“You guys done eating?” Dia asked, before getting up from the table that had been set up for them. Everyone had been living in one of her father’s treasuries, which had been modified for daily living and nightly feedings of lifestones by professionals who had been paid handsomely…

That last bit felt a bit suspicious, but it was the only way the four of them could burn their mana circuits in the day. Besides, while they were asleep, the sickly sweetness of so much lifeforce was less of an issue. Compared to the first time Dia binged on lifestones, this method was so much more acceptable.

“Blergh.”

Dia glanced at Schwarz, who had been afflicted by the desire to throw up for the past month, and wondered why he was this weak. However, a mark of adulthood was knowing when to not voice one’s thoughts, so she simply said, “Now that we’ve been fed enough to burn our sixth and seventh mana circuits, we’ll need to devote the rest of our time to entering the ranks of the strongest in the world.”

“Does that mean an end to those nightly feedings?” Farah asked.

“Yes. Our nights will be dedicated to drawing our mana circuits henceforth. I believe everyone already has a lot of practice drawing them, so this process should be sped up…probably.” Dia folded her arms. “After all, the two lovebirds probably relied on their fresh memories of recent circuits to build up rapidly. We can imitate their success.”

“Using our recent memories as a foundation to rush up?” Farah asked. “Does that work?”

“We’ll find out. Besides, lifeforce really isn’t the issue right now, since the ancient battlefields were reopened,” Dia replied.

“Indeed,” Risti added. “After a while, one’s skill at manipulating mana becomes the key. Remember, the more mana circuits you have, the more you need to draw at once. It’s not really six mana circuits; that’s just what it looks like.”

Dia nodded. Drawing her sixth mana circuit entailed the redrawing of the previous five in a virtual state. The cost and complexity were thus increased; if one’s Mana Control Proficiency was not up to snuff, the entire structure would break down. In fact, hexa-folder was quite the misnomer — a person with “six” mana circuits actually had twenty-one times the mana capacity and potency of an actual one-folder.

The formula wasn’t that hard either; it was just one plus two all the way until plus six. However, this was the reason why a difference in mana circuits made all the difference, especially mana potency. Not only did hexa-folders have twenty-one times the capacity of a one-folder, the quality of their mana was also twenty-one times more condensed.

In absolute terms of units of mana as defined by a one-folder’s mana circuit, this meant that a hexa-folder had 441 times more mana than a one-folder, if one took into account mana potency too…

“Still, to think that my father would have so many studies on mana,” Dia muttered. “Why didn’t he show them to me when I was younger? It would have been nice to know that there was such a difference. If I knew, I would have just spent my days working on my mana circuits, not my swordsmanship.”

“Well, that’s impossible. You have to remember that Emperor Grandis banned dukes from becoming penta-folders until very recently,” Risti replied.

Farah nodded. “And there are laws against noble scions having more mana circuits than their parents too.”

“Wait, what?”

“It’s obvious, right?” Farah asked. “Otherwise, nobles would all just collectively raise their kids to become hexa-folders. And if the Third Tutorial wasn’t this devastating, they would have just pushed on to their seventh mana circuits, orders be damned.”

Dia thought about it. Indeed, her father and his subordinates were the kinds that would go for loopholes where possible. In fact, most of the nobles were all about loopholes to begin with; this was definitely a loophole that Emperor Grandis himself had to patch up.

“True.”

“Exactly.” Farah shook her head. “Anyway, mana circuits aside, does anyone find it weird on how the two lovebirds that are currently holing up in Monsville haven’t contacted us much? Their messages are so perfunctory nowadays. Are they busy working on their next mana circuits?”

“Maybe they’re busy making babies,” Schwarz replied. “Nero’s the kind of guy that would go all-out when he’s in love, and he’s definitely fallen head over heels for Kemata. Lucky slob.”

“Now, now.” Farah paused. “Well, I suppose he’s lucky to have found someone who suited him.”

“How about you?” Schwarz asked. “Last I heard, your vassals were clamouring for you to get an heir.”

“I’m just twenty-odd years old. Don’t be silly…I’m more worried about Dia,” Farah replied.

Dia blinked. “Wait, me? What’s that got to do with me? I’m leaving soon, and I’m in no mood to fall in love anyway. How Claud, Lily and Nero all have the capacity to is beyond me.”

“That’s…sad, I suppose?”

“Why is that even a question?”