Dia shivered as the last bit of green light turned into blue, and the complex network of circuits shimmered with the glitter of perfection. A rush of power flooded her veins, coursing through her mind and empowering her body over and over again. At the same time, multiple screens opened up in her vision, and she looked through them slowly.

[Your Mana Circuit Superimposition has reached 3.00]

[Authority increased]

[Quest function unlocked!]

[Your skill, Fighter’s Instinct, has changed into Fighter’s Intuition!]

Her vision shimmered once, and Dia blinked. Something seemed to change inside her, altering her ability to sense and react to attacks and other stimuli. She didn’t quite know what other changes this new skill wrought on her, but Dia could tell that her combat ability had increased drastically.

With another thought, she opened her status.

[Name: Dia Lyceria de Lustre

Lifespan: 113 years

Active Skills: Sword Dance (7), Sword Sense (7), Sword Roar (5), Fated Sword (2), Sword Fall (2), Domain of Swords (1)

Passive Skills: Heightened Senses, Fighter’s Intuition, Foreseer’s Eye

Mana Circuit Superimposition: 3.00

Mana Control Proficiency: Intermediate

Authority: 3

Comments: Congratulations on arriving at the pinnacle of low-ranked mana-users. It has been some time since you’ve checked in, but I have watched you grow steadily over the past few weeks. Succeeding in your first try is impressive, to say the least.]

Dia let out a long breath of turbid air. Completing her second mana circuit had been a long process, but for some reason, she had easily completed her third mana circuit. She didn’t understand why either, especially since her Mana Control Proficiency hadn’t changed much, but it was what it was.

Thanks to Count Nightfall’s payouts, she had managed to enter the ranks of tri-folders. The others were lagging behind somewhat; most of them were taking the climb to completion more slowly this time around. That said, it was somewhat expected, since she was still the only one with Intermediate mana control.

To be fair, deskbound people didn’t really have much time to train on actually wielding mana. The only one that had improved her Mana Control Proficiency was Risti, who had woken up one day to see that it had improved to Intermediate too. As for why that improvement had occurred when she was asleep, who knew?

She scooped up another handful of pure-ranked lifestones and popped them into her mouth. There weren’t much left, since she had been munching on them right before the final sprint, but now that she had succeeded, Dia wanted to both relax and replenish the thirty years she’d used to draw that last 0.1 of her mana circuit.

Frankly, it was still unbelievable that she had succeeded on her first try. The state of mind she had been in earlier felt like a sublime dream now.

What exactly happened?

The euphoric rush of lifeforce continued to course through her veins over and over again as Dia ruminated on the little snacks she was popping into her mouth. How many organisations could claim to have so many lifestones to chew on?

Probably a handful and nothing else.

She slid off the bed and looked up at the night sky. Dawn was approaching, and the light of the three Moons, while weakened and muted, still illuminated the world.

Did they have a hand in helping her ascension? After all, she and Nightfall had shown up in that Eternal Bulwark meeting, and Nero had vaguely mentioned a couple of benefits.

Either that, or she was just dreaming. Chuckling to herself, she slid off her bed and bounced over to the door, her stomach rumbling. All that hard work had paid off, and her tensed nerves were now firing signals that she was thirsty, hungry and very, very pleased.

To her surprise, Risti was bustling around the kitchen.

“You’re up early,” Risti noted.

Dia glanced at her friend, who was emitting an air of happiness too, and her brows furrowed up. For some reason, she could see herself in Risti’s actions, and a thought struck her.

“Tri-folder?” Dia ventured.

The egg in Risti’s hand paused, a stay of execution.

“How did you know?” Risti asked, lowering the egg that was about to be cracked. “Unless…you too? Tri-folder? Did I get that right?”

“Yeap. You got me.” Dia stretched her neck. “I’m surprised. I thought I was the fastest one around here, but again, no one was discussing their progress much. We were all just working hard in our own little ways, without telling anyone else. Seems like a good day for us both, though.”

Risti jiggled her shoulders. “Take a seat. I’ll just cook a bit more for the both of us.”

“Thanks.” Dia sat down on a chair and closed her eyes. She could sense every movement Risti was making, just by the small movements of air and the faint sounds she heard. It wasn’t the first time she had experienced that, but this time, her senses were a lot cleaner.

It was as if she was now looking through a clear slate of glass…but she could recall using a similar metaphor before.

“An extra-clear slate of glass?” Dia wondered, before thinking about her father and brother. Now that she was a tri-folder, she was reasonably confident in protecting herself from whatever few idiots that were still going after her pathetic bounty. If she really wanted to, going home wouldn’t be an issue anymore. Of course, she would still need to hide…but did she not have an identity for herself now?

Going back as a double and faking it.

That idea popped into her head and made its home inside her mind over and over again, and Dia gave it some serious thought. Her father was definitely aware that she was in the Istrel Dukedom, masquerading as her double. Whatever gossipers and stalkers — she glanced at Risti — would probably be aware of that too. Even if she returned, it would not be as Princess Dia, but the double of the princess.

Not many people would scrutinise her, given the current circumstance. Once inside the palace, it would be a lot harder…

Her eyes turned to Risti again, and Dia shivered.

Maybe not. At any rate, however, she couldn’t quite see the best time for her to go back. The Red God’s familiar spirit was hunting the murderers of the First Bearer of Destiny, and the situation in the battlefield between the Moons and the Dark was escalating by the moment. Over the past few days, ever since that massive presence descended near Lostfon, Schwarz had been receiving reports of increased aggression and receding frontlines.

The three dukedoms in Istrel were roughly equidistant from the frontlines at the Liquet Dukedom, which made things rather complicated, since there was no one place that could be fortified over and over again.

A clatter roused Dia from her thoughts, and she looked at the plate laden with scrambled eggs. “Thanks, Risti.”

“You look deep in thought. Something on your mind?” Risti asked.

“Well, I was thinking about going back to the Lustre Dukedom,” Dia mumbled.

“With the Red God’s familiar spirit around, that’s not a bright thing to do,” Risti replied. “Might wanna wait for the next lunar phase instead. Everything should stabilise by then.”

Dia twitched.

“And it’ll be safer if you’re a tetra-folder when you return,” Risti replied. “I’m sure the princess is already keeping an eye on you. If you return, it’ll mean that you’re confident enough to deal with bounty hunters, and she’ll almost certainly join up with you somehow. It’ll be a problem if you aren’t strong enough yet.”

“A tetra-folder within a month?” Dia asked. “No way.”

“Is it, now? I mean, there’s a certain Holy Son…”

“Nero’s circumstances are different, okay? And we’re really fast already, all things considered.”

“We’re fast due to our resources, and we still have a lot of lifestones,” Risti replied. “That’s why we are rising this quickly.”

Dia nodded. “You make sense.”

“I usually make sense, okay?” Risti rolled her eyes at Dia. “When have I never made sense?”

Replying with a smile, Dia looked at the food on the table. “I’m going to dig in…anyway, when do you think the others will succeed? And what about Nero?”

“Nero, huh…well, he’ll probably need to hunt for some prana jades or something. He might head to the frontlines at Liquet,” Risti replied. “Ancient battlefields are very rare now, after all. He’ll need either more pure-ranked lifestones or prana jades, and the former is in very short supply now.”

Dia nodded. Thanks to Count Nightfall, who had been hoarding up lifestones for some time, they could now receive pure-ranked ones as a reward, but it wasn’t like the count didn’t need them either. It was a short-term source, and everyone knew that the age of rewards being pure-ranked lifestones were coming to a close.

“We’ll also need prana jades too,” Dia replied. “They can be broken down into pure-ranked lifestones, right?”

“…Wait, are you crazy? Do you want to head to the frontlines?” Risti asked.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to lead a certain familiar spirit on a wild goose chase? And we’ll be close to the hub of the Moons. I’m sure there’ll be greater deterrent there.”

“This is too serious. We need to vote on it.”

Dia looked at the egg on her plate. “Sure.”