When Theo heard that, he looked at Bernard with his mouth agape.
"Follow ," Bernard said as he slowly made his way between the aisles.
Theo followed him right away, and that was when Bernard continued.
"From the mont you gained this affinity, you have tried to work harder than any of the other heirs, young master. Everyone has seen it, be it servants, knights or even your own family mbers..."
"That hard work has brought you to this point, where you are far stronger than what a usual 11-year-old should be. Yet you are still not strong enough in terms of adults, be it with your young body or your strength."
"But that is not a bad thing. Not at all."
Bernard stopped in front of one of the aisles.
"Now you need to focus on one thing at a ti. Stabilize it, then move onto the next, and stabilize that as well," he explained. "You don’t need to increase your strength any further right now. What you need is just stability."
He let out a small sigh before asking,
"Tell , is your ant colony stable? Can it improve or at least stay as it is for as long as you want, young master?"
"To be honest, old man Bernard, I believe the ants will stabilize if I give them the territory they need to grow. And since you said I should stabilize things first, finding new evolution points shouldn’t be my priority right now."
"But their lifespan is also a mystery. Normally, so should only live for a few months, yet they have already survived far longer, and I still can’t feel like they are nearing the end of their lives. Still, their lifespan is an important point of all this hard work."
"I need to get the ants I have worked so hard for to reach level 10 so that their lifespan doubles again, old man Bernard."
"Hmm, that is true. You seem to be thinking in the right direction for this one," Bernard nodded.
"Then your thod of stabilizing things is clear. You just need to break through your current requirents, and when you do that, which you state won’t take much ti," he continued, "simply get these ants to level 10 and slow things down afterward. Is that acceptable?"
Theo looked at the old man and nodded.
’All these things... I had already figured them out in my mind to so degree, but I couldn’t arrive at a single clear answer. Is it the pressure of ti that’s making this panicked?’ he asked himself.
The more Theo thought about all this, the more it felt like things were slowly beginning to clear up in his mind, one by one.
"Now, your main beast is already at level 10, so when you break through, its lifespan will increase rather faster. You don’t need to concern yourself with it."
"And if the Emperor says this beast is strong, then you don’t need to make it stronger right now either," Bernard said. He opened his mouth again to continue, only to stop.
He looked at Theo, who had already noticed his hesitation, and the boy nodded as if telling him it was okay to continue.
"While I don’t want to pressure you more than what you have already put on yourself... there is this one concern I have," Bernard said, his eyes filled with pity.
"I did a lot of research on your mantis and the creature it evolved from, the ’Iron Mantis’. Its lifespan is only about 12 months, give or take... So, if you evolved it to level 5, that lifespan doubles to about 2 years... But it clearly has been more than 2 years since it leveled up, you are already at the 3rd year," Bernard explained.
Theo knew where this was going. He looked at Bernard with a sad smile.
"I think I now know your second fear, young master. It’s that while your beasts are strong, their lifespan is the biggest issue. Even if you were to reach level 10 and it doubles again, your mantis will likely live for another 5-7 years at max."
Theo nodded again, this ti with a faint smile that showed he already had that in mind.
"But it’s too risky to assu that when you have already ’evolved’ your beast to a better form. Maybe its base lifespan increased by 5... maybe even 10. If that’s the case, that would change things completely, as its lifespan then may already be around 30 years right now."
"But that is still an assumption. We don’t have proof."
Theo waited quietly for him to speak his mind, and strangely, he felt relieved. At least there was soone in this world who was intuitive enough to see the whole picture and understand what he was going through.
"Is there a way to find out how much lifespan my beasts actually have, Old Man Bernard? Even an unconventional way, anything that could help ," Theo asked.
Bernard looked at him with even deeper pity.
"All the lifespans written in the books were only found through trial and error. Over ti, we have seen beasts dying of old age before level 5, at level 10, and even at level 15. Beyond that, there have only ever been a handful of records," he explained.
"Trial and error, huh..."
Theo didn’t know what he could do with that information. Yet the idea that ca to his mind right away also seed to have occurred to Bernard.
Bernard spoke again.
"As for you ants... you have thousands of them, and their numbers may even grow even larger with ti. If you don’t mind saying..."
"Speak your mind. I did not co here to make you hesitate, Old Man Bernard," Theo interjected, making Bernard fall silent for a mont before he continued.
"You can use the most conventional thod, young master."
"Keep so ants at level 1 and simply leave them. When they die and the age that is the most prominent among them all is what their natural lifespan is..."
"And after that, you can repeat the sa process with each breakthrough group."
He paused before finishing.
"This is a rather sad and grueso way of doing things... but I assure you, the results you will obtain in a year or two will benefit you for the rest of your life."
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