Fun fact: the arm that was cut by the maddened mantis was the right one and not the left one. That meant the whole ‘now I have one less arm to cut’ parade was useless. Either way, Dale and Adrian went to assassinate the last mantis squad in spec-ops mode. Nothing fancy, but it was cool to them when they imagined being special agents. Adrian could get close to his enemies without getting detected, and Dale could snipe them from the distance. Each one killed one mantis, the remaining one was shot by Dale and killed by Adrian in order to balance the experience. It wasn’t a perfect system – as Adrian got a 60% contribution – but it worked. Adrian should have factored the fact he had [Time Dilation II] on, but both him and Dale forgot it was still working.

The guys did a little experiment with [Time Magic] while they were walking back to the camp. Tracking the mantis group had taken more time than expected as they walked far away from the previous spot. The experiment consisted of casting [Time Dilation II] two times in a row. If the effect duplicated, great. If not, they had to prove if the duration stacked. So, at 10:16 a.m. Adrian started his countdown. If the spell wore off at 10:31, the time didn’t add. Even then, if the spell did add, that only meant he could cast it one time and forget about it without paying attention to the remaining time. It actually wasn’t useful as he could cast another one if the party felt the effect ended, but hey, at least they would have found the boundaries of [Time Dilation II].

“The effect is gone.” Dale casually said to Adrian as they walked in the woods. He felt his body becoming slower, the spell no longer worked.

Adrian used his [Ultimum Celeritas] to watch the time. 10:32, the information was introduced directly to his thoughts. “Fuck.” Adrian swore.

“Only one worked?” Dale asked.

“Yes,” Adrian confirmed. “Sixteen minutes had passed since I casted the first spell, so when I casted the second one, the first vanished.”

“Oof,” Dale sighed. “That was a waste of mental power.”

“Sure, it was.” Adrian replied.

It was a shame that his resources were wasted, but there went his plans of stacking [Time Dilation II] until he used all his mental power and then recharge it in the Blue World Template. Truth be told, Adrian didn’t want to wait tens of relative hours, but that would have been ease experience without any risks.

“Yo!” Dale saluted the party once he and Adrian arrived at the river. “We have hunted a bit since you weren’t in the mood.” Dale pointed at the bag that Adrian was carrying.

“Only four to go.” Adrian added.

Aby made signs of wanting to speak, she stopped, swallowed her words, but finally talked. “How can you two be so energetic after that?” She asked about the massacre she provoked.

“They were just insects,” Dale explained. “Even then, didn’t you kill hundreds of baby mantises?”

“That was different.” Aby defended herself.

“I see no difference.” Dale argued.

“That moment I actively killed,” Aby started her explanation. “But now… now I forced a living being to kill its compatriots.” Aby hated insects, and she showed that. That didn’t prevent her from being influenced by the scene.

“You shouldn’t give it that much thought.” Axel advised her.

“Yeah,” Mike agreed. “Also remember that Dale has The Fool. He isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.” Mike knew the Tarot card did not work quite like that, but he wouldn’t tell Aby that.

“What about you, Adrian?” Aby sought Adrian’s explanation.

“Maybe my world is more fucked up than yours?” He responded with a question as he sat on a log. “I dunno. Perhaps I’m cold-blood or insensitive to those matters.”

Adrian responded sincerely. He didn’t know if their Earths were lighter in relation to traumatizing topics. But Adrian recalled learning not family-friendly things in History classes, even for his world’s standards. Adrian wasn’t a person that hesitated, either. He had killed the first mantis he saw without a doubt or remorse.

“I wish I was like you.” Aby whispered, her voice was faint, but the feeling genuine.

“What are we going to do now?” Kayle asked as she casted [Renew] on Adrian. He wasn’t hurt, but it was probably to squeeze experience from the Class Advancement Overview.

“Well, first we need to hunt the four remaining mantises. Then Mike, you, and I will go to Czecheri.” Adrian cleaned his glasses as he explained. He contemplated the idea of buying some silk or a similar cloth for cleaning the glasses.

“I am a bit tired.” Kayle explained. “And I’m not in the mood to hunt.” The rest of the party nodded to her words, even Dale. He was probably more tired than psychologically unwell.

“Alright,” Adrian told. “I’m gonna hunt those monsters and then we submit the quest at the guild.”

“Cool.” Mike responded.

The Time Weaver left the party in order to complete the quest. As he walked, Adrian presented himself with a question. ‘How it is that [Celeratio] makes me faster but I consume the same energy?’ That broke Adrian’s basic understanding of physics. He wasn’t an expert, but more movement meant more calories burnt. Well, he had seen a lot of things that literally broke the rules of the universe, but he was worried about the first principle of thermodynamics.

He discarded the question by thinking that the Record did as he read on the tutorial. He was quicker, period. This procedure could make sense, physics wise. One only had to think that he was more energy-efficient, needing less energy by meter walked. Still, that train of thought was a dead end. Adrian couldn’t explain how something like the Arcane Record could work, he needed to play along. And right now, killing mantises to complete quests was the priority. The next objective after that was to reach 50 [Celeratio].