Riya studied the Silvia Kingdom map in front of her, and after some deep thought, she answered, "I am not sure, as there is no map of the Northern Plain. My rough estimate will be: if you—or rather, 'only' you—become a Mana Wielder, and if you try to go 'alone', it might take five to six months on one journey, and the return journey will definitely take a similar time." She absolutely had no idea, as she could not estimate how fast a Mana Wielder could travel, so she just guessed slightly higher than Mortal standard. But if Eric had a companion, then maybe four months.

  What Riya was suggesting was pretty obvious, so Eric rolled his eyes. "Do you think if Ly and Liv join, then it will make it faster?"

  "Absolutely, and it would be far faster. Even when you traveled in your past life—except for a few places—you always had companions, at least when you were going to a fixed destination. Having a few people makes travel much easier and safer, or else, why do you think they form groups when going anywhere? Anyway, both my sisters are totally strong and capable, and not any less capable than you when it comes to physical abilities."

  Eric could also understand all that, as having a trusted and capable companion is really a bigger blessing than one could imagine. But before that: "Do you think they can even become Mana Wielders? Three years have already passed, and they do Mana Sensing training every day—still, they haven’t opened their ‘Mana Space,’ or whatnot. Even they are starting to get suspicious about why. They should have become Mana Wielders when they were eight, and even if they failed on their eighth or ninth birthday, their tenth should have done it! But they are still stuck. So, unless they obtain those Elixirs..."

  "That’s why, if we manage to find the old butler’s wealth, it can be a good start," Riya interrupted Eric. "If you can heal both of them, then they would be completely grateful to you for their entire lives. Even if they don’t sell their bodies to you—or you reject them, as always, because you’ve suddenly become a homo!—they will still definitely help you in whichever ways they can. Also, if there’s is such Elixir with that butler, then you can also speed up on becoming a Mana Wielder, as you yourself still need another six or seven years."

  Eric was embarrassed; he hadn’t turned gay and was completely straight! Riya knew that well, but she still mocked him! Could he go and hit her? Would that count as child abuse?

  Leaving that aside, what worried Eric was that he wouldn't know when he would again kick the bucket and go visit Lady Death. This world was also far more dangerous than Earth. He didn’t want to feel bad if something happened to either Lyria or Livy because of him.

  Riya snorted at Eric’s stupid worries. "You underestimate my sisters Ly and Liv! They will beat your ass if you keep underestimating them. Also, there is never a guarantee that those walking nuclear bombs—Mana Wielders—suddenly decide to fart in this town, and the whole place blows up. In short, both Ly and Liv could always die while staying here! Just ask them directly about their interest and inform them of yours. Since you know they have a crush on you, then they will gladly be willing to take risks."

  Eric rolled his eyes. Having a crush was problematic. He didn’t want to think more on that topic, as he could also be wrong—maybe Lyria and Livy hadn’t developed such a thing and just considered him some irreplaceable friend. It would be better if that were the case.

  Either way, he could try asking both Lyria and Livy when he was about to leave Ringwood Town permanently in the future. The rest was up to them.

  No matter what either of the girls chose, Eric would still try to find cures for them. After all, they were friends, not business partners. Even if both girls found themselves husbands, or were of no help to him, he would still try until they themselves had given up and just wanted to live their lives as Mortals.

  This was also the beauty of childhood friendship. People have hearts, but after growing up, they become concrete blocks with only survival going inside their heads—profit, loss, and all that. Eric wasn’t naive; he could trample on others’ hearts, but he wouldn’t trample on his own, thinking it was someone else’s.

  While Eric was wondering how he would be dying next, he heard a knock on his door.

  Eric exhaled softly. He knew who was behind the door, so he smiled and answered, "Come in."

  With a twist of the door handle, the door opened, and Lyria and Livy walked in with bright smiles on their pretty faces.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  After entering, Livy closed the door while Lyria sat on the other empty bed in the room and smiled. "We are here to bother you again, Brother Eric."

  Eric smiled back. "You are always welcome." He didn’t bother sitting up and still lay on his bed.

  Both Lyria and Livy almost every afternoon visited his room. They usually chatted about random stuff, joked around, played games, or discussed their training and duels. They also did Mana Sensing and Channeling Training together in his room.

  Eric didn’t mind the company. He wasn’t a loner, though he also didn’t mind being one. He enjoyed every way.

  Livy walked up to the large open window and took a deep breath. Rain had already started pouring, though not too heavily yet.

  Livy enjoyed the scenery outside the window for a while and then sighed. "Brother Eric’s room view is definitely the best! Even those of us who are just next door lack such a nice view." She had always felt that way but never found the opportunity to say it.

  What Livy said was the truth. When Eric could walk properly and was choosing rooms on the first floor, he had selected the current one especially because the view was the best.

  Livy closed the window as rain had started pouring heavily. After doing so, she turned to observe Eric’s room and sighed once again. "Even this room looks much more spacious."

  "Well, what can be done when both the roommates of your room are giants?" Eric laughed.

  Because of Lyria and Livy’s height increase, similar to Eric’s, they also had to change their beds twice in the last three years. Now their beds are big enough to accommodate them even if they reach seven feet. Due to that, they also had to discard their study tables, while Eric’s unoccupied bed remained the same size. So now his room at least had one study table, whereas Lyria and Livy didn’t have any. The only good thing was they didn’t have to discard their wardrobe as well.

  Livy giggled, hearing Eric’s words, and sat beside Lyria on the bed. She was very glad that she wasn’t falling behind Eric or Lyria in height.

  Then they all started chatting and joking about their morning trip.

  After a while, Lyria asked, “Brother Eric, what do you think Grandma will teach us now?”

  She was very excited for all the classes—the same could be said for Eric and Livy, except for the deskwork studies.

  Both Lyria and Livy had long forgotten to call Bella Noll 'Teacher.' They now simply followed Eric’s way of calling her 'Grandma.'

  After trying to correct them a few times, Bella Noll had also given up on being called 'Teacher' and accepted her fate as 'Grandma.'

  “About the evening training, it will probably be on basic weapon moves since we still don’t know any.”

  Eric, Lyria, and Livy only knew random movements, but due to their high balance, strength, flexibility, and accuracy, even without knowing the proper way to wield a weapon, they could still fight like experts. Even so, learning the proper way had its importance and advantages.

  Among them, Livy loved using two weapons, while neither Lyria nor Eric were great fans of weapons.

  Despite their personal preferences, they all had a keen interest in learning all weapons, so they were excited for Bella Noll’s next classes.

  “Yes, I can’t wait!” Livy nodded enthusiastically. “Although I can use dual weapons just fine, when it comes to proper movements, it’s all messed up. I think we might need at least a year to fix our bad habit of swinging randomly.”

  Lyria was also confused. “I wonder why Grandma didn’t teach us the proper way from the beginning. Then all this fixing wouldn’t have been necessary.”

  Eric provided his guess: “I think it’s because we lacked strength, precision, balance, control, and so on, so she trained our bodies first. She also probably just wanted to give us time to get the feel for ourselves on how each weapon, or even random weapon movements, feels like, instead of teaching us the perfect methods from the beginning. She perhaps wanted us to learn basic moves according to our preference instead of just blindly following the right ways.”

  Eric felt he was correct, but he was no expert in martial arts. He had studied it once—only up to a yellow belt. Or was it green?

  Riya calmly replied, “Green. Though you were close to blue, you quit midway. Well, your family was busy moving houses back then, so it wasn’t your fault.”

  Eric doesn’t really remember, as it had been a very long time.

  Both Lyria and Livy felt what Eric just said made perfect sense, so they nodded in agreement.

  Lyria muttered curiously, “I wonder what Grandma’s real age is. She’s so knowledgeable. With her looks and being a Rank 2 Mana Wielder, she should be 120 years old?”

  None of them were aware of Bella Noll’s true Rank. In fact, no one in town knew for certain.

  Eric’s eyes suddenly grew wide. He quickly sat up on his bed and asked with shock, “Does being a Mana Wielder increase lifespan? Why hadn’t I heard of this?”

  It wasn’t Eric’s fault to be shocked, as he knew Bella Noll’s age. She was somewhere between 60 to 70, but she looks so old already, and that’s why he guessed that she was injured internally.

  He always thought that all Mana Wielders had the same lifespan as mortals. He just thought Mana Wielders were a little healthier and far more capable than mortals. But Lyria clearly mentioned—her being a Rank 2 Mana Wielder—in other words, does Rank 3 have more lifespan?

  So if Bella Noll made a breakthrough with some rare elixir, would her lifespan extend? Did that mean he didn’t need to search for the mythical life-extending elixir that he was imagining all the time? He just had to focus on breakthrough elixirs. There had to be one, right? With demand, someone must have created something like it!