“What are we going to do now?” Dia asked, looking at the two sleepyheads — Farah and Schwarz — that were leaning against each other. If their faces moved a tiny bit closer, they might end up kissing, which was a sight that Dia would happily peek at through the gaps between her fingers.

“Those two? Or are you referring to us in general?” Nero asked.

“Us, as in the Seekers of Life,” Dia replied. “We’ve walked away with oodles of lifespan and carts full of mana-soaked prana jade. Do we just absorb all the lifestones here, mine out new prana jades and then return?”

“Gotta be specific around these parts,” Risti added. “But that’s a good question, I suppose. To be honest, I don’t think I’d mind staying here a bit longer. We’re self-sufficient, and there might be more people who benefited from that outburst of lifeforce. We might find ourselves outmatched if we’re unlucky.”

She looked at the sliced meat, which had been seasoned liberally by what looked like black pepper. Spearing it with a stick of mana, she dipped it into a plate of soy sauce and nibbled away daintily.

The Holy Son of the Black God folded his arms. “Given recent events, I think it’ll be best if we continue on our original plan and hunker down here. You guys have the mission to support the Moons, right?”

Dia glanced at her status, where a new entry had popped up. Her status had grown more detailed when she became a tri-folder, although there had been nothing worth noting about the whole thing back then.

[Faction Mission: Moonlit Victory

Mission introduction: The time has come for the Moons to rise. The winds of victory blow with the Moons, with only one of the great Dark’s Bearers of Destiny left. With only one Bearer of Destiny left, the Dark is now on the defensive. Now is the time to burn your life for rewards far greater.

Mission requirements: Defeat the great Dark.

Personal Mission Contribution: 0%

Overall Mission Progress: 11.357%

Prize Pool: 15000 years of lifespan.

Additional remarks: Contribution can be gained by killing Dark-aligned Bearers of Destiny (5% each), the soldiers of the Dark (0.00001% each), the two Halves of the great Dark themselves (15% each) and the adversary (22%).]

“It’s a prize pool mission,” Nero continued on. “What that means is that based on everyone’s mission contribution, they get some lifespan after the mission is complete. Someone with 1% contribution, for instance, would get 150 years of lifespan after the great Dark is defeated. Someone with 10% would get 1500 years.”

Risti chuckled. “This sort of approach is favoured by the Folders’ Association, where everyone inside is competitive as heck. No one knows how many other people are interested, yes? But the more they are, the more even the contributions become. The payout at the end, rather than favouring a few who can make use of their extreme gains to become an overlord of sorts, becomes evenly split.”

Dia paused. “Okay, and…”

“Hmm.” Risti tilted her head. “Imagine you are a bi-folder and you see this mission. Let me ask you this one thing; would you prefer seeing three thousand new bi-folders, or ten new septa-folders?”

“This question is a bit too sudden,” Dia replied.

“Let’s assume that there is a high probability of these new folders to be nasty people who would abuse their power. Would you prefer having lots of weaker nasty people or ten really strong, really nasty ones?”

“The former.”

“Exactly. The safest assumption to make when you come across situations like this is that everyone outside your group is hostile. Nasty selfish fellows that would take advantage of every edge to continue their climb towards strength. Under such a circumstance, no one wants to see the rise of someone truly extraordinary. Folders far and wide would flock to the banner of the Moons and the Dark, just so that no one can monopolise lifespan like this.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Dia looked at Risti thoughtfully. Since she hadn’t encountered anyone from the Folders’ Association before, she hadn’t really thought about them much, save as an interesting piece of backstory for Risti. However, this little spiel had reminded her that Risti’s father was the leader of the Folders’ Association.

Well, at least Risti was on their side. Letting out a small sigh, she said, “By saying all this, do you mean that the Moons won’t care that much about the Seekers of Life?”

“Yeap.” Risti let out a sigh. “Fortunately, we managed to convince the Red God’s familiar spirit that Holy Son Mendas’ death had nothing to do with us. Having that label tacked onto us didn’t do us any favours, to be honest. And of course, Nero was a great help.”

Dia looked at Nero inquisitively, and the Holy Son grinned. “It’s a lot easier to command respect when your identity has been raised, you know. I can’t help but think that this was perfect timing for me, when the Moons descended way in advance. If that hadn’t happened, we would have been at a disadvantage.”

“What do you mean?” Dia asked.

“The familiar spirit showed some respect to Nero’s new identity,” Risti replied. “Otherwise, he might have just searched the memories of Schwarz and Farah.”

“Those two only?” Dia glanced at the sleeping fellows.

“Privileges of a Watcher. Besides, we, as Watchers, saw the corruption of Holy Son Mendas ourselves. The Moons were witnesses too. There is little point in searching our memories, as a result.” Risti shrugged. “The world protects its own.”

Dia shivered.

“Anyway, we’re fine now. We’re innocent to begin with, so just forget about all this and think about the future. Leave the Thief of Time to the familiar spirit.”

“Ok—

A red figure fell from the sky at that moment, and Dia immediately shifted to meet the new threat. The others reacted a moment later, but the familiar spirit simply dusted himself off and directed a glare at the sky. “Sorry to intrude. The Moons didn’t like me flying into their barrier, so they threw me back at where I last touched the ground.”

Dia twitched once.

“Don’t worry,” the familiar spirit replied. “I only heard that last sentence.”

Did the God of Precision really need to operate in this way? Resisting the urge to frown, Dia and the others looked at the familiar spirit, who was clearly restraining his own existence. The familiar spirit, however, didn’t quite care about them, and began to walk off to the north instead.

The three of them watched him depart in silence, before turning to their meal. Fortunately, the three of them had finished their meal, or else the cloud of dust from the familiar spirit’s sudden appearance would have dirtied their food. More importantly, however, this was an eye-opener for Dia, who had directly witnessed how coincidence could twist itself to support the favoured of the Red God.

“Is the Red God the God of Precision?” Dia muttered. “It sure feels like the God of Coincidence, though. Precision doesn’t feel like it!”

“The most precise things are planned coincidences,” Nero replied, before shaking his head. “And how do you know that this wasn’t precisely planned?”

“But…”

Risti chuckled and raised a finger to her lips, prompting Nero to do the same. After holding the gesture for a few seconds, she motioned at Nero once, who said, “You have read books and seen many shows, right? How many such books have the protagonist be the protagonist because of perfect timing? Because they were in the right place at the right time? That is true precision.”

“Does it really work that way?” Dia rubbed her nose. “We aren’t characters in a book, though. Things don’t go as planned this nicely. I’d rather ascribe them to coincidence.”

“Think what you like, but the Red God is the God of Precision for a reason,” Nero replied. “Your own views won’t affect that.”

“Alright, enough, the two of you.” Risti clapped her hands. “Let’s treat today as a rest day, and then we’ll go absorb the lifestones in these carts tomorrow. I don’t think we’re in the mood for work now anyway. Damn. I was hoping that this trip would be a relaxed one, but we had the Moons descend early, the Red God’s familiar spirit showing up not once but twice…and we might still be visited by a Moon Emissary afterwards.”

“I thought you said that they probably wouldn’t come,” Dia replied.

“It’s just a guess. They might show up after tallying the numbers and realising that a group of mana-users aren’t biting their bait,” Risti replied. “Which is why we’re still going to absorb all the lifestones here. If we arrive late, the battlelines should have been fully stabilised. Death and injury occur the most when things are shifting. However, the Moons and the Dark are equals; once the battlelines stabilise, they’re unlikely to shift for a very long time.”

“How long?” Dia asked, curious.

“Uh…a few centuries, maybe.”

Dia found herself speechless. Did it mean that this mission would only be completed after these few centuries?

“The mission will probably complete on its own in ten years,” Nero added. “Otherwise, everyone’s going to feel that it’s a scam and stop trying hard.”

“Okay, so add that damn thing into the mission, then,” Dia muttered. “Anyway, can we ransack this ancient battlefield before we leave? I think emptying it of prana jade is the safest way.”

“…We’ll see.” Nero yawned. “I’m going to sleep. We can continue our daily routine tomorrow or something.”

Dia who had been standing guard over everyone else, stifled a yawn and nodded in agreement. “Sure. Have a good rest.”

As one, the three of them got up and headed to their base. As they entered, Dia didn’t forget to snap the Area Cleanse skillstick once more, just in case the familiar spirit did something, before heading back to her own room.

The camping life was calling out to her once more.