Chapter 685: – Calculations |
‘Are you fucking kidding me?!’ Percy cursed. ‘Everything we went through to infiltrate the tournament, get the Decree, and successfully bring it back to Remior, only to stumble on the one thing that we hadn’t thought would be an issue?!’
Admittedly, he could see why the alliance’s mages didn’t think twice about activating their new cores. While a fivefold reduction in lifespan was a steep price for anyone to pay, it wasn’t quite as bad as it sounded, because the organ would still make up for some of that after catching up to its owner’s other core.
Even if it started a few grades lower, it would never take more than a couple of centuries of cleansing to catch up – unless it belonged to an Orange-born mage who hadn’t managed to claim the Void Decree until Violet.
The passive boosts that multiple mana cores granted were additive, so someone going from a single core to a pair of them would double their lifespan. In this case, it would compensate its owner for some of the losses, resulting in an overall division of only two-and-a-half times.
It wasn’t nothing, but the founding factions had access to first-generation leaves and cleansing resources on par with the Aurora Dew. Just one of those things was enough to make up for the Decree, and the other would still extend a Yellow-born’s lifespan enough to place the Clear grade within reach, thus allowing the Void Hand’s member-factions to retain their status as greater springs.
Percy couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if somebody from a weaker world like Thess’kala made it to the top eight. Kassorith’s people only had a second-generation sapling, and weren’t privy to the secret of the cyan powder, so their Yellow-borns would be screwed if they acquired a new mana core.
This probably didn’t happen very often – if at all – but the alliance would presumably either prohibit such contestants from claiming the Void Decree, or force them to swear an oath of secrecy from even their own people before they were given both the new mana core and superior cleansing resources. The second scenario sounded far more likely, as it would allow the alliance to avoid public outrage and make the most of a talented mortal.
Well… that certainly explained a lot of things.
Between the need to sacrifice seventy-three people to activate the Decree, and the lifespan reduction, it was no surprise it was considered a cheap imitation of the Moirais’ Decree.
Regardless of how the alliance dealt with the problem, Percy was completely stumped by this requirement.
Not only was he a Red-born who had overcome countless hardships to stretch his lifespan enough for potentially reaching the peak of the Colour realm, but he already had two cores. Obtaining a third would only increase his lifespan by fifty percent, which meant that the Decree would divide his remaining lifespan by a factor greater than three after all was said and done.
‘Maybe we can still afford it?’ Micky tentatively asked, sounding a little calmer than Percy. ‘If I’m not mistaken, you’ve already overshot the lifespan requirement for the Clear grade by quite a bit. There is no doubt that this will be a major setback, but it might not be impossible to eat the price.’
Percy nodded, considering his friend’s suggestion carefully. The last time he had calculated his lifespan, he had been about to acquire the second-generation leaf, and his artificial advancement had been little more than an ambitious idea.
Back then, he had estimated that claiming the leaf from Thess’kala and upgrading his boosting art would have brought him extremely close to his goal, and that a first-generation leaf would fully bridge the gap separating him from the Clear grade.
Percy had since achieved every one of those milestones, but that wasn’t all that he had done. His previous calculations hadn’t taken the royal jelly into account. Incorporating the miraculous resource into the Aurora Dew had further doubled his cleansing speed.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Inserting the new information into his calculations, he estimated that he should currently have a little over sixty-five hundred years left to live, before elevating his second core to Green or awakening the third.
Assuming that his remaining artificial advancements wouldn’t take more than a couple of years to complete, and that the few decades that his third core would need to catch up to the other two were negligible in the grand scheme of things, he roughly worked out how much lifespan he would have after certain major milestones.
After paying the price of the Void Decree and getting all three of his cores to Blue, he would have over eight thousand years left. Reaching Violet would take eight hundred and would leave him with over twenty-one thousand. Reaching White would take another eight thousand and would leave him with under forty thousand…
‘Which is not even half what I’ll need to become a demigod,’ he concluded, his heart sinking as the cold, hard math dashed his hopes of acquiring the new core.
If he didn’t activate the Void Decree, none of this was a problem. He could reach the Clear grade very comfortably, having nearly half a million years left to forge his internal world and attain divinity. This was several times the total lifespan of even Remior’s Green-born demigods of old, which was proof that all of Percy’s efforts in stacking so many bonuses had already solved his original problem.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t have both a third mana core and a shot at godhood at the same time. Not with his current means, at least.
‘You could always activate the core now and look for another way to extend your lifespan later,’ Micky suggested.
Percy mentally shook his head. ‘It’s too big of a risk. I feel like we’ve exhausted most methods already.’
Even if getting a fourth mana core was biologically possible, Percy didn’t expect another faction to produce a suitable Decree within his lifetime. He was already using a superior form of beast mana that most factions didn’t seem to know about. The leaves wouldn’t get any better unless he managed to revive the original World Tree – which would pit him against the Moirai, the Void Hand, the divine beasts, and a fourth powerful faction at the same time.
The only other approach to extending his lifespan that Percy was aware of and hadn’t taken advantage of already was the mental-type Decree in the tournament’s prize pool that he had skipped. Sadly, it would only stretch his time by a meagre ten percent. Even if his thrice-evolved Status greatly amplified the effect, Percy doubted it would be enough.
It was true that becoming a god required ambition and risk, but the line separating that from stupidity was a thin one, and Percy felt that he was close to crossing that threshold.
‘If we have no choice but to toss our efforts in the garbage, I’d rather let the past year on Maradion go to waste. It’s either that, or everything else that we have accomplished over the past thirty years,’ he concluded.
Micky sighed. ‘What about me? Should I activate it?’
Percy thought about it. His fellow aspect was a beast, so his first core advanced faster than the rest. Unfortunately, even if Micky’s beast affinity reached the Clear grade in time, he would have to wait for his other cores to catch up, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to incorporate their concepts into their internal world, which would defeat the point of having them in the first place.
The fact that the Huehuan’s first core would hit its milestone a little sooner would mean that he would consume his remaining lifespan slightly more efficiently than a sapient, but Percy knew that mundane crows tended to live much shorter lives than Red humans, so his friend might still die before he did.
‘Let’s not,’ he said after explaining his reasoning. ‘I don’t like this any more than you do, but it’s for the best.’
It wasn’t like they would discard the Void Decree – activating it would always be an option. There was still a chance that they would find another way to extend their lifespan, and it might not be too late to awaken their new cores then. Percy just wanted a guarantee that they were going to recoup their losses before taking that leap forward.
Also, Nephthys should be in a much better position than the two of them, since she was an Orange-born. If the reincarnated goddess gained access to the Decree after becoming an aspect, she might even be able to intentionally acquire her old mind affinity, which should make the Lone Wanderer’s eventual apotheosis significantly smoother.
‘You win some, you lose some,’ Percy said. ‘Getting the Void Decree was always a long shot. We should be glad that it wasn’t a complete failure. Our artificial advancement is still cause for celebration, and that’s without even mentioning all the other rewards we brought back.’
‘Agreed,’ Micky replied.
Having gone through most of their recent gains, there was only one final thing left to do, to conclude this bittersweet session. Percy tried to pull up his newly-evolved Status and was greeted by a couple of interesting notifications.
[Calibration complete.]
[Congratulations! Your mutation has evolved: Sage’s Eye -> Saint’s Eye!]
Confirming that Ningirima’s Decree had added new functions to his Status and senses improved Percy’s sour mood slightly, though it was the unfamiliar page that unfolded before his eyes that caused his jaw to slacken.