Eye of Time

After returning to his room, Kronos could hardly wait to examine the power of the Time Stone.

Since the Time Stone did not need potions to advance, its power had naturally advanced once Kronos himself reached Sequence 8.

The first change was an enhancement to its Sequence 9 ability. Originally, Kronos could use the Time Stone to conceal himself for three days at a time. Now, that duration had increased dramatically to a full month.

Honestly, without such a substantial improvement, he would not have dared leave his family's manor. That afternoon, he had been so excited about discovering the Time Stone that he had not thought things through.

Once the concealment wore off, corruption from the cosmos would inevitably follow. Kronos needed at least a day's rest before he could activate temporal concealment again, and he was better off spending that time at the manor, where the God of Steam and Machinery could protect him.

Otherwise, his schedule would have consisted of three days away followed by three days back at the manor. The round trip alone would waste most of a day. It would have been a real hassle.

Now, though, things were much better. He only needed to return home once a month, and he believed that interval would keep growing as his Sequence advanced.

Next came the Sequence 8 power:

Time Stone Sequence 8 ability: Eye of Time. Everything has its own timeline. The Eye of Time allows you to capture and observe timelines.

Seriously? Both abilities have latched onto my eyes-first the Eyes of Mystery Prying, now the Eye of Time. If they keep getting stronger, won't I eventually be able to kill enemies with a glance? Kronos silently grumbled.

Grumbling aside, Kronos still very much wanted to shout, "Okay, this is amazing!" Although the Eyes of Mystery Prying were an eye-based ability, they focused more on exploring knowledge and offered little in the way of reconnaissance.

The Eye of Time could capture an object's timeline, which meant nothing within his field of vision could escape his eyes unless it could conceal its timeline. Yet there did not seem to be many powers that manipulated time in the world of Lord of Mysteries.

Besides, the ability to observe timelines was absurdly powerful. He could observe a timeline's past and extrapolate its future. It reminded Kronos of that iconic scene in which Doctor Strange saw fourteen million possible outcomes.

Kronos knew that, at his current level, he would be lucky to see even a few glimpses of the past or future. But that did not matter. As his Sequence advanced, this ability would only grow stronger. Someday, he would be able to do it too.

Kronos looked at Klein and said with an inscrutable air, "I saw thirty-five million possible outcomes of your war with Amon."

Klein asked, "How many did I win?"

Kronos silently raised one finger.

Just imagining that scene nearly made his inner edgelord explode.

Of course, his daydream only lasted a little while. He still had serious work to do. New abilities needed to be tested immediately; otherwise, a lack of understanding could cause problems when he actually needed them.

Kronos activated the Eye of Time. His eyes turned a pale green, and he began looking around.

Kronos's eyes had three states, each showing him a completely different world. There was no need to discuss his ordinary vision.

The Eyes of Mystery Prying could observe a target's Astral Body, Ether Body, and Mental Body, examining the Astral Body in detail. They also revealed certain things around him that were normally invisible. Ordinary objects, however, appeared chaotic and disordered.

What the Eye of Time showed him was even more wondrous. Every object within five meters sprouted a line-presumably its timeline. Most of the timelines belonging to the objects in his room extended in an orderly fashion before disappearing into the void.

But Kronos discovered several disordered timelines: those of his bedding and a crystal ball beside his bed.

Kronos captured the bedding's timeline with his eyes and saw quite a few images: a maid changing the bedding that afternoon, the laundry room, and the textile factory where the bedding had been made.

That was probably the entire life of the bedding. It had been manufactured in a textile factory a few days earlier, delivered to the Argel Family, washed several times, and then placed on his bed by a maid.

The other objects in the room had not been moved recently, which explained their orderly timelines. This set of bedding, however, had only arrived in the room that day, making it stand out.

Kronos continued channeling his spirituality, hoping to see more images. In other words, he wanted to test whether he could see the future.

As Kronos steadily expended his spirituality, an image flashed before his eyes. Then his spirituality ran out.

It was a very simple image: an enormous trash bin filled with bedding. This also demonstrated that the future he saw was accurate, since the Argel Family discarded their bedding after a single day's use. They were rich! They could do whatever they liked!

This experiment gave Kronos several conclusions: objects that remained in the same position for a long time had orderly timelines; a disordered timeline indicated that something had been moved; and his current spirituality only allowed him to make extremely brief predictions.

It was still early, so Kronos could conduct several more rounds of testing. After meditating for a while, he activated the Eye of Time again and looked at the crystal ball beside his bed.

A furtive figure then entered his field of vision, picked up the crystal ball, and left. Two hours later, she returned it, muttering, "I don't even like pink crystal balls, but Mom insisted on giving me the pink one. My brother's looks much nicer."

Mystery solved. It was Annie. The Marquise had bought a crystal ball for Annie last month and brought Kronos a blue one as well, so she would not appear too partial. She had never expected Annie to dislike pink.

Putting that aside for now, Kronos increased the amount of spirituality he poured into the ability. The images of the crystal ball shifted from a few days earlier to a crystal ball shop two months ago, then to a crystal-processing factory, and finally to the geode where it had been mined six months ago. Then they stopped.

Kronos could sense that this was not the beginning of its timeline, and his spirituality had not run out either. He simply could not see any further back.

Eye of Time ability summary, part two: observations were limited to a fixed viewpoint, and images of the past could only reach back six months.

These observations had all involved inanimate objects. There were still living things to consider.

After recovering his spirituality for a while, Kronos began experimenting with observations of living things. He chose several subjects: the guard dog, an ordinary animal; a household maid, an ordinary person; his father Marquis Argyle's bodyguard A, a Beyonder-a Sequence 9 Hunter; his father Marquis Argyle's bodyguard B, a Beyonder-a Sequence 8 Pugilist; and his father Marquis Argyle, a Beyonder-a Sequence 6 Scroll Professor.

These subjects neatly covered ordinary animals, ordinary people, Beyonders of a lower Sequence than his, Beyonders of the same Sequence, and Beyonders of a higher Sequence. As for supernatural creatures, he really had no way to test those. His family did not keep a dog of Imagination or anything like that. Zero stars!

Kronos kept at it until the early hours of the morning, then began summarizing the results of this round of observations in his notebook:

1. For Beyonders of a higher Sequence than mine, I could only see images from today and could not see the future. (Since Father is two Sequences higher than me, I can make my own estimate for Sequence 7.)

2. For Beyonders of the same Sequence as mine, I could see images from the past week but could not see the future.

3. For Beyonders of a lower Sequence than mine, I could see a month's worth of images. Seeing the future seemed possible, but I lacked sufficient spirituality.

4. The maid is having an affair with the coachman. (Cross that out, cross that out. Just kidding!)

4. For ordinary people, I could see images from the past two months. I nearly saw the future, but I lacked sufficient spirituality.

5. For ordinary animals, I could see images from the past two months. I nearly saw the future, but I lacked sufficient spirituality. (People are actually no different from dogs!)

Looking over the successful results of his night's experiments, Kronos smiled in satisfaction. He finally had a much more thorough understanding of his ability. Insufficient spirituality was a serious limitation, but the ability itself was undeniably excellent.

The rest of the night passed uneventfully. At breakfast the next morning, Kronos gave his crystal ball to Annie, claiming he did not like it. Her haughty little expression said, "I don't like it, but for your sake, I suppose I'll take it." Kronos practically melted at how adorable she was.

His mother Audrey, the Marquis's capable wife, naturally noticed something was up at once. While Annie's eyes were glued to the crystal ball, she cast Kronos a questioning look.

Kronos noticed, of course, and quietly mouthed, "She doesn't like pink."

Both his father and mother understood at once.

After breakfast, Kronos left the Argel Family manor. There were still things waiting for him to do in Backlund.

Kronos did not head straight home. Instead, he went to Backlund University first. There were still some matters he needed to ask Professor Portland about.

He could not rely on wheedling and acting cute to secure cooperation with Earl Hall. Although that might work, it would be far too embarrassing for the Argel Family. Kronos needed a suitable opening.

The current ironclad project was naturally the best opening. The country's major steel companies would all be supplying steel for the project over the next two years. Surely using up some iron ore would be a trivial matter.

The Argel Family's steel companies were not involved in the project; otherwise, they would not have been stuck with surplus production they could not sell. That was because all the Argel Family's steel companies were small or medium-sized. They avoided major projects, well versed in the art of keeping a low profile.