The Time Dilation ratio of an Exceed Cave was one to one hundred. A single day outside was a hundred days inside. It was one of the last things John explained to the family after the four of them had gone, standing under the Virion Iridant Tree with the elders gathered close, and he said it the way a man delivers good news and bad news in the same sentence.
"So do not sit around counting hours," he told them. "They could be in there for months of their own time before your first week passes. And when they come out, they will come out changed. That is how the caves work. You send in your strongest, and the sky gives them back to you sharper than you remember." He paused, and his voice lost some of its ease. "In the meantime, the rest of you have a problem. The kingdom stands in the upper layer now. And the upper layer collects its rent."
