Looking up all the records on anchors and domains, s.h.i.+ro narrowed her eyes at the gradual evolution of the magic circles and noticed a small consistency among them.

"Say, older me, look at this." s.h.i.+ro called out as her older self swung her chair over to her side.

"Sup."

"Look at this part of the magic circle. What is it? During all of the 'evolutions', this one has stayed constant but I can't help but notice that you have no record on what it is." s.h.i.+ro asked.

"That's because it can't be a.n.a.lysed. It's the part that I can't figure out. I've been trying to reverse engineer the magic circle through a.n.a.lysing the other components but I haven't been able to figure out anything about the core component yet." The older s.h.i.+ro shook her head.

"Then I'm guessing that this is probably the thing that we need to figure out then. What about domain? Surely you can set up a domain right? Since we were born in this world." s.h.i.+ro asked.

"Nope. Unless we have an anchor point, the domain cannot be created. Think of the anchor as the core of the magic circle and the components of the magic circle is the domain. Without the core, the components wouldn't appear." The older s.h.i.+ro explained.

"Hmm…. That's a bit annoying then."

"Tell me about it. I've been trying to sort this sh*t out for quite a while but I haven't been able to figure out anything." The older s.h.i.+ro shrugged.

"Have you tried to pry one of the anchors open?"

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"No since I haven't got the chance to. If I attack now, it means that they can kill me and with the amount of benefits they get from their anchors and domains, I'm afraid I must say that I'm not their match. I still have Error 404 but there are heavy restrictions to using it now and I'm afraid it's impossible to activate."

"Eh? How come?"

"Because the system is gone." The older s.h.i.+ro explained as s.h.i.+ro paused for a moment before nodding her head.

"Hm… So not only is our most powerful weapon blocked, but we also can't do a deep a.n.a.lysis on the anchor points." s.h.i.+ro frowned.

"Yup. And if I die, the world is gone."

*Sigh

"The new age has really f*cked things over huh?"

"Tell me about it." The older s.h.i.+ro nodded before moving back to her own computer.

"Older me, another question. Since the third daughter is biological, does that mean our partner is a man?"

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"Maybe, maybe not. I'm able to make pregnancy between two girls possible as well you know? You ain't getting the name of my beloved that easily now you know." The older s.h.i.+ro laughed.

"Tch. I can't imagine myself saying beloved." s.h.i.+ro s.h.i.+vered slightly.

"Well you're seeing me do it now. I mean, I can also call them my sweet honey pot, my one and only~" The older s.h.i.+ro cupped her chin with a blush. Naturally, she was trying to annoy her younger self who seemed to s.h.i.+ver at her older self's actions.

"Please stop. I would have thought that my older self would be more mature than this." s.h.i.+ro sighed.

"We both know we ain't mature." The older s.h.i.+ro shrugged.

"So how did you figure out who you loved? You don't need to tell me the name, just the context." s.h.i.+ro asked while swiping a few files towards her older self.

"It was a moonlit dinner. The sky was clear and the stars could be seen. Wine was on the table along with a high cla.s.sed meal. In front of me sat my dearest with a soft smile. Looking at my dearest, I felt blessed. And that's when I woke up. It was quite a nice dream I had last night you know? HAHAHA!!!!" The older s.h.i.+ro laughed at the annoyed look on s.h.i.+ro's face.

"F*ck you." s.h.i.+ro cursed before searching through some more files.

'Why the f*ck did I stay a troll like I am now. Surely I should have matured right??? Right???' s.h.i.+ro thought to herself since talking to a more mature version of herself would be appreciated.

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"Some people may never change and unfortunately for you, we didn't." The older s.h.i.+ro said with a smug expression before returning the file to her with a few notes.

With two s.h.i.+ro's a.n.a.lysing the anchors and domains, their working speed increased tremendously since there were very few who could keep up with her. And even if they could barely keep up with her, they couldn't store the knowledge as well as she did.

The current situation is akin to having two super computers working side by side on the same project with all of their processing power on this singular task.

After around an hour or so, s.h.i.+ro leaned back on her baby stool since she had essentially learnt everything that she needed to know.

This little research session had filled up quite a few of the blanks that she was wondering about.

Much like a civilisation building game, the anchors were like the village hall while the domains are the different buildings that are placed around the anchor. Each anchor has a certain amount of domains that it can sustain and the owner must choose how big the anchor is.

However, doing so has its drawbacks. Their power is reduced depending on how big the anchor is and the only way to get a refund or perhaps even get stronger is for the domains to harvest 'donations' from the subjects.

Let's say a queen invests 10% of their power into an anchor and creates several domains around the anchor, the subjects will offer small portions of their power and it will funnel into the anchor, sustaining it while the initial investment is returned. Any extra that the anchor obtains is then pa.s.sed onto the queen.

However, the size of the can't change after the initial investment unless one destroys it and starts again. However, in doing so, they will need to invest their power once more and wait for the returns. Therefore, there are very few that are willing to break their anchor unless they're absolutely certain that the enemy wouldn't notice.

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But this wasn't all. The domains could be taken over and the power/return, could be stolen and siphoned to another ruler. Hence why one must have adequate guards around each of their domains. A few of the queens also form alliances using this.

If they find a prime spot for their anchors and domains, they may choose to work together and share the bounty through this siphoning feature. Thought this rarely happens since there are strength disparities between the queens. Unless they are equal in strength or if the returns are not worth the effort, they would choose to form this alliance.

"We need to figure out how the queens can make additional Anchors and what they're using for it. Their main anchor can't be destroyed otherwise they're out of the compet.i.tion so there must be something in it that keeps them tied to the compet.i.tion." s.h.i.+ro furrowed her brows.

"Mn. I did see one of the queens get eliminated despite having their smaller anchors still intact so we can a.s.sume that the smaller anchors don't matter too much in the grand scheme of things. However, if you do go after them, you are able to siphon parts of their power, making yourself stronger before the fight." The older s.h.i.+ro nodded.

"Hmm… do you think we can make an anchor if we take one of the smaller ones?"

"We might be able to but it will risk our safety quite a bit since it means the queen can come after us. Even the weakest queen is no joke at this period of time. If it was near the start then maybe. But now? h.e.l.l no. they've been cultivating their strength patiently. If there is one tip that you must understand, it's that you want to finish this age as quick as you can. The longer it goes on, the harder it becomes since the head honchos become ridiculously strong." The older s.h.i.+ro shook her head.

"Without a guarantee, I'd rather advise against risking ourselves like this. We could give them the chance of killing us without getting anything in return."

"What about the queens that have been eliminated, can you grab their old anchor and see if you can find out what we're lacking?" s.h.i.+ro asked.

"I tried that already. It's no use, the queen must be alive for the core component to be present. If they die, the anchors become useless crystals."

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Furrowing her brows, s.h.i.+ro had an idea.

"I'm not sure if you tried this yet but how about we do it like this. If we can get two queens to try to kill each other, we will attack the smallest anchor belonging to the weakest side and examine it before she dies. That way, even if she knows, she can't do anything about it and we'll be able to a.n.a.lyse the anchor, hopefully finding out the one piece that we lack." s.h.i.+ro suggested.

"That's rather reckless. If both queens settle their differences and turn towards us, we're dead for good you know that right?" The older s.h.i.+ro raised her eyebrow.

"Sometimes risks are necessary and to increase the odds, we need some serious planning." s.h.i.+ro replied.

"Then I suppose it's a good thing that there's two of us." The older s.h.i.+ro grinned.