The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

It would have been better if they hadn’t let their guard down right after leaving the trap.

Having broken through countless traps that deceived human senses, they naturally expected an attack as soon as they came out.

The Arcana executives took a minute to be convinced they had properly escaped and that there would be no more attacks.

A whole minute.

The timing of the golem suddenly rising up and attacking seemed to not only predict all their actions and psychology, but also induce them to let their guard down at this very moment.

“Whoever made this trap is truly the worst.”

Rotulus grumbled while slashing the giant golem, which was 6 meters tall, with all his might.

In the distorted space, they couldn’t be blamed for briefly letting their guard down after spending a distorted time under tension.

No matter how well-trained a person was, they needed rest after consuming enormous stamina and mana for dozens of hours in a space with extremely low oxygen.

If the person who designed this trap joined Arcana, the title of ‘Arcana 15, Demon’ should be given to that person, not Malecob Jeffries.

They continued to destroy the golems that kept rising up while surveying their surroundings.

“Let’s move to a different spot since there are injured people.”

Jeffries suggested while roughly catching his breath, and the others agreed.

No one wanted to stay any longer at the entrance and exit of this cursed trap.

“According to my sense of time, we spent three full days in that distorted space, and that damn hail is still falling.”

At Bifleod’s words as he carried Javan on his back, Jeffries answered,

“I don’t know much about magic, but Echelon, the father of spatial studies and the ‘Sage of Geometry’, said that space and time are one, so if space is distorted, time is also distorted.”

Everyone looked at Jeffries as if asking what nonsense he was spewing.

“To put it simply, just because we spent three days in that damn trap doesn’t guarantee three days have passed outside as well.”

“Ah, I get what you mean.”

Bifleod understood Jeffries’ words through ‘experience’, not knowledge.

In a world full of all kinds of magic and mysteries, there was no way a long-lived dwarf, and one who was an Arcana executive at that, had never had such an experience.

They moved to a different location and checked the conditions of Javan and Arisa.

“It’s serious.”

Jeffries, a doctor and shaman, clicked his tongue while treating the two.

Javan was severely injured, let alone Arisa, whose recovery power was excellent.

“We’ll have to leave the fool here. He’ll only be a hindrance if we take him.”

Rotulus made a cold judgment.

Leaving him here was no different from telling him to take care of his own life.

But no one objected to his words.

If one couldn’t survive in the Bastille Mountains with mere injuries, they were unqualified as an executive and could die for all they cared.

“We have to leave Death behind too.”

At Jeffries’ decision, Rotulus frowned.

“Death’s injury will heal soon. Even now, you can see the wound closing up as if treated with holy magic.”

Jeffries shook his head at Rotulus’ rebuttal.

“But she’s completely exhausted from mana depletion. It will take days for her to recover like this.”

In the distorted space, Arisa was the one who sacrificed and used mana the most.

On top of that, she consumed her lacking mana to heal serious injuries, so it was natural she couldn’t use mana.

“Tsk, this is bitter.”

A mage who can’t use magic is worthless.

In a dangerous mission, they are nothing more than excess baggage.

Given that they were tasked with creating cracks in the seal guarded by the Sage of the Winter Wood, they sufficiently considered the possibility of dying.

However, they didn’t expect two people to drop out before even reaching the barrier where they thought the real fight would take place.

“Strange. The Sages of the Winter Wood have been laid-back fellows for generations, perhaps due to the mana they inherit. But such aggressive actions…”

At Bifleod’s mumbling, Rotulus sighed.

“That’s not what’s important right now, Strength. The issue is that Death, our only mage, is down, so we may not be able to use the ‘key’.”

Their objective required a magic staff called the key to create cracks.

“Ah, don’t worry about that. The usage method isn’t difficult, so I know how to use it too.”

At the words of ‘Arcana 12, The Hanged Man’, who wore his hood pulled down, Rotulus looked at him with a doubtful expression. He shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“The ‘Demon’ and ‘Strength’ should also be able to use it if they know the method. Both of them have learned magic to some extent.”

Among the executives gathered here, the only one who hadn’t learned magic was ‘Arcana 07, Chariot’ Rotulus.

“Then that’s fortunate. When Arisa wakes up, have ‘The Hanged Man’ receive the key, and share the method just in case.”

“Understood.”

The mission naturally proceeded.

They had Jeffries, who was practically the nemesis of the ill Yekatrice, so it seemed easier to advance than to break through the raging hail.

Foolishly, that’s how it seemed.

******

While Jade and Gilbert diligently cleaned up the corpse of ‘Mist’, Silua sent mole-type dolls, the Tunnel series, into the cave to start mining mana crystals and ethersteel.

“I’m looking forward to the ethersteel! I think it would be great to make oppa’s doll with that too!”

I nodded while setting up a tent with Precia at Silua’s words.

I would be happy if she used such high-quality materials for my personal doll.

Ethersteel couldn’t be handled with mediocre equipment, but it could be refined sufficiently with the workshop equipment in Geor.

“That sounds good. I also know where mithril and adamantium veins are, so let’s use those too.”

“Really? Wow! Mithril! Adamantium!”

It seemed it would be perfect to use adamantium for the skeleton, ethersteel for the muscle fibers, and mithril for the mana circuits.

Jade also showed interest, eyes sparkling at the mention of rare metals.

“Can I get some too?”

“If you need it, you should use it.”

“Oh! Thank you!”

I bragged about metals I hadn’t even obtained yet, and Jade was delighted as if he had received the metals right away.

“Now, everyone worked hard today, and tomorrow we’ll move to catch ‘Lightning Steps’, so get plenty of rest.”

Among the five great magic beasts, ‘Lightning Pace’ was actually the easiest to hunt, despite being extremely fast and difficult to fight head-on.

‘Lightning Steps’ could be killed in one strike if you set traps and ambushed it.

The problem was ‘Iron Armor’, the great magic beast in the center of the mountains.

That venomous centipede not only had an outer shell as tough as ‘Unicorn’s horn, but it was also difficult to approach because it sprayed venom all around.

Moreover, it would burrow into the ground and escape in a pinch, so it wasn’t easy to prevent its escape either.

In the novel, Precia fought it head-on while stupidly detoxifying the poison, but I had no intention of using that method.

Two hunting methods came to mind right away, but which one should I use?

While I was contemplating, Precia hammered in the last support pin into the ground, picked up a training sword, and called Gilbert.

“Young master, then we’ll go clean up the surrounding monsters as training and come back.”

“Yeah, since it’s fully spring now, the monsters won’t be rampaging, so take it easy.”

It was only in early spring, right after winter ended, that it was called the bloody spring.

Now, when vegetation grew and herbivores also woke up from hibernation and started to sustain themselves, the food chain stabilized.

In the first place, the bloody spring occurred because monsters wielded mana and woke up from dormancy much earlier than animals lower in the food chain.

Of course, that was also the intention of the Sage of the Winter Wood at the time who first sealed the holes to other worlds.

The Sage of the Winter Wood at that time was wary of monsters multiplying too excessively and tried to make the monsters fight each other.

That plan was successful, but it was so successful that it led to monsters living near human settlements going down to find food.

“Yes, we’ll be careful.”

“We’ll be back.”

After seeing off Precia and Gilbert, I laid out a spot inside the tent and lay down.

“Phew, I’m tired.”

By the way, seeing that there was still no signal that the barrier of the Winter Wood Forest had been breached, it was clear the Arcana executives hadn’t arrived at the Bastille Mountains yet.

If not, it wouldn’t make sense for Arcana executives to still be unable to break through the barrier.

Named executives shouldn’t be that incompetent.

There wasn’t much besides ‘Mire’ among the traps set outside the barrier, and even if they were caught in ‘Mire’ and delayed, executives should be able to break through quickly.

“Tsk, then did I waste mana stones with the hail for nothing? I thought they were hiding and gathering since I was told they would invade, but I guess I misjudged.”

The hail was meant to force the actions of those hiding, but it seemed to have failed.

Well, the real ones only activated after entering the barrier, so it didn’t matter when they invaded.

It would be even more amusing if Arcana belatedly invaded after we collected all the sealing mana stones and completely closed the holes to other worlds.

“No, wouldn’t that be better?”

I giggled to myself and fell asleep.

This frail body was exhausted just from wandering this filthy vast land.

On top of that, I lost consciousness as if fainting from the hardship of hunting ‘Mist’.

*******

Rotulus sighed as he stood in front of the Winter Wood Forest, passing through the pure white snowy field without a single blade of grass.

“Phew, we finally reached the barrier.”

They advanced cautiously, leaving Arisa and Javan behind.

The path they had traversed was full of countless deep gouges and muddy slush from melted snow and ice.

They had repelled thousands of ice golems, magic chains rushing in from all directions, and occasional illusions, but it was nothing compared to the spatial distortion trap they first fell into.

They could have broken through in one go, but the reason they were extremely cautious was because they had no confidence in safely escaping another spatial distortion trap without Arisa.

Yuan had calculated the time considering that Nivel would also come in addition to Arisa, but since Nivel couldn’t participate in the mission, the time had greatly increased.

“There won’t be traps like that inside, right?”

At ‘The Hanged Man’s worry, Bifleod calmly said,

“This barrier is practically a sanctuary for the Sage of the Winter Wood. Even if the other Sages of the Four Seasons came and earnestly pleaded, they absolutely wouldn’t install strange traps.”

Everyone was relieved at the long-lived dwarf’s words.

Of course, the Winter Wood Forest was by no means a safe place.

It was a space where not only the unbearable bitter cold awaited those who entered without permission, but also where proper strength couldn’t be used due to the strong mana pressure.

Moreover, since the forest strengthened the Sage of the Winter Wood, it could be an even more dangerous space than the spatial distortion trap.

Nevertheless, they were relieved for two reasons.

One was that they had prepared countermeasures in advance, and the other was that they believed in the plague sorcery of Jeffries, who had been engaged in the same mission in his youth.

“Then let’s break in.”

Rotulus used all his superhuman power that he had been saving to slash the barrier and create a gap.

The Arcana executives quickly entered through the briefly created gap and soon shouted,

“A sanctuary, you said! They wouldn’t install strange traps, you said!”

They didn’t know.

A sanctuary was worthless in the face of a disciple’s freedom and a master’s favor.