While Others Cultivate, I Use My Multiverse System-Chapter 168: The Prince
Chapter 168: The Prince
In the end, the only way that I could think off belonged to a rather brutal approach. Propelling myself to the air with my newfound force born of my improved cultivation, I would scan the entire area for any signs of proper commanding.
Once a unit that was clearly lead by some capable officer appeared in my line of sight, I would drop right in the middle of it. Pointing my hand towards the heart of the mass destruction that I caused before, I would ask any random soldier whether the prince holding the sacred core was nearby.
And as brutal and merciless as it was, if the answer wouldn't satisfy me, I would unleash several attacks from the normal magic stones before jumping high into the air again and repeating the entire process.
Be it my own hope coming to fruition or the human side realising that this disaster they didn't expect would continue to happen if they didn't do something before I could ask my question for the fifth time, a small unit detached from the rest of the army, rushing towards the backline only to stop several meters behind the back row of the army.
"Could it be…" While the entire entourage wore beautifully decorated armours, it was the presence of a man in the middle that alerted me. Even though I never met him before, there was something to his innate aura, one that every living being had around itself, that made it clear that he was the person I was looking for.
With the periapsis of my jump reached, my body started to fall towards the ground once again. Using the repulsion directly against the ground, I managed to slow my descent to a manageable speed, before softly landing just a few steps away from the expensively armed group.
"Who the hell are you, and why are you killing our people?" Gently tickling the sides of his horse with his heels, the same man that I noticed while in the skies pressed forward. Even though his question was heavy, there was no hint of anger in his voice.
Only confusion.
"You guys betrayed me. I made a deal with one of your officers that if I help him to conquer one of the hills, I would get the sacred core in return." Seeing that the man appeared to be someone capable of at least talking before pulling the swords out and clashing with me, I decided to be honest. In the end, even if he was the man that I was looking for and he would fervently deny all my claims to his possession, I couldn't help but feel like if no matter how powerful an opponent would be in this world, they would be no match for my newly found power!
"And?" Clearly noticing that it wasn't the end of my story, the prince squinted his eyes. Just from this inner sense of his, I could tell that he wasn't a prince in name only, but a true leader of the human armies on the field.
"Once I did my part of the deal, we were approached by one of those black-wing monsters. At first, we talked normally…" Shaking my head in a sign of helplessness, I then directed my cold eyes towards the prince's face. "But then, for some strange reason, both one of your officers and one of your enemies joined hands and attempted to claim my life."
Spreading my arms as if I wanted to tell with my body that I was out of options back there, I finished. "And that's how the first disaster appeared on the battlefield. Everything past that was just my attempt at finding you, the prince who I assume owns the sacred core so that I can claim my reward."
There was no hostility in my voice, actions or face. I didn't know whether the entire trouble was caused by some kind of mind-boggling ability of those monsters to brainwash the humans they met, incompetence of the officer himself or some kind of greater scheme behind it all.
For all I knew, the prince before me could be the most capable, kind and loyal person in all of the worlds I visited so far. After everything I went through, I simply refused to judge people based on the limited set of factors I knew off.
Just like I didn't treat Martha as the one responsible for the deaths of my parents, I wasn't going to treat this prince as if he was at fault for his subordinate's mistakes!
"If I may ask, what do you need this sacred core for?" Reaching out to the bags attached to his saddle, the prince pulled out a small, yellowish stone before flaunting it into my eyes. But while he was most likely trying to provoke a reaction from me, he could very well pull out his sack and call it the sacred core.
Doing so would have way greater chances at forcing a reaction out of me!
"I don't think this is your business, prince." Shaking my head, I initially wanted to withhold the information, before a certain thought struck my mind. "To be perfectly honest, I don't have any idea. I just need to get it back where it belongs."
This time, my answer only resulted in the prince squinting his eyes once again, before releasing a long, defeated sigh. Gently throwing the stone up only to catch it as it would start to fall, the man looked at me with a concerned expression.
"Since you decided to be honest with me, I will be honest with you as well." Sighing again, the prince moved his leg above the back of his horse before jumping to the ground. Keeping his hands away from his belt where his sword was attached, he stopped just a few steps away from me.
"This core…" a sign of hesitation appeared in the prince's eyes before a third sigh left his lungs. "It's nothing but a trinket for me. But since you seem to value it, let's make another deal."
Lowering the hand he held the sacred core with, the prince pointed his other hand at the two armies wrestling it out just a few hundred steps away from us.
"I'm not going to tell you to win this battle for us. But given how you killed quite a lot of my soldiers, I cannot accept the former deal you made with one of my officers." Shaking his head, the man looked at the stone in his hand once again, before suddenly throwing it towards me. Unprepared for this kind of development, I barely managed to catch it, before looking at the prince in surprise.
"I can tell whether someone is lying or not. As such, I know that what you said about the recent events is true. But even though it was my subordinate's fault when he attacked you, you still killed soldiers that had absolutely nothing to do with the entire matter at hand."
Placed in this situation, I pulled all my stops. But even when I attempted to read the man's emotional aura, I was faced with the very same void that I saw in Ayda and others when we were back in her world.
And from this, a simple conclusion could be drawn. At a certain level, people appeared to be able to protect their thoughts from witchcraft tricks!
But that didn't mean I was completely powerless. Given how the man already passed what he claimed to be the core I was looking for to me, I only needed to take a look at my system to see whether my quest progressed.
And surely enough, besides the line requesting me to obtain the sacred core, a yellow tick appeared, turning the bold line within the quest to finding its true destination.
Which by itself, appeared to be way more challenging than obtaining this stone in the first place!
"Well, since you gave me what I wanted, I'm willing to listen to your request." Nodding my head before storing the core in my backpack, I looked expectantly at the prince.
"While I can't tell how many soldiers of mine you have killed, I can tell that it wasn't actually a lot. As such, what I expect you to do, is to kill at least as many if not more mutant monsters before leaving this place." There was no way for someone of this calibre to miss the look of excitement that flashed through my face when I received the stone.
And he was just as quick to follow up his passing of the stone with the request associated with it.
"Well, from what I saw, you still require several soldiers to kill just a single mutant, am I wrong?" Looking mischievously at the prince, I felt my lips twitching a bit when his expression soured once he heard my words. But before he could reply, I nodded my head before turning my sight towards the ongoing battle nearby.
"Since I might need your help to find where this stone should go, I won't really mind the details now." Pulling out the second recurring barrier stone, I looked at it for a moment, before hiding it back in its box and then to the backpack. Given how it was greatly disturbing the very fabric of the world, I didn't want to risk using it so quickly and so close to where it acted before.
After all, if I killed even more humans, wouldn't that mean going against the prince's request?
"I would be honoured to be of service, then." From the tense expression on the prince's face, I could tell that he didn't really dare to trust my words.
Thankfully, there was a simple way to prove his worries wrong. So, with a smile on my face, I pulled the same recurring stone that I used to destroy the wizard's camp back in Ayda's world.
"Let me prove that working with me generally tends to be a better choice than working against me then."
