บท 13: Slipping Away
To leave the palace, since he is 5, he could use curiosity and innocence as a weapon.
Lucien started hatching a plan, that would help him advance faster.
'Mother wouldn't allow be me to try Rank 1 meat, and I'm not sure it's a good idea, since I don't know if the Rank 0 Iron Ghoul can erase will of Rank 1 lifeforms.'
'If it's absorbed through All Existence, the large amount of energy might cause quite a lot of damage to my body.'
'I guess to get quick existence points, I have to find I way to make some commoner humans disappear silently.'
'Killing Rank 0 would probably require a fight and meeting a peak Rank 0 might result in a defeat.'
'I have to be quick.'
It took him a couple of days to work out all the details and be confident in the plan.
It was surprisingly easy to convince Alice, about leaving the palace.
'I guess I'm not really imprisoned here, it's more about them trying to protect me.'
'Now I'm a bit worried about the guards they will assign me.'
'As long as it's Rank 0s and 1s, I can still slip away.'
Excluding commoners who still walked at 4-5 km/h at normal speed, because body advantages.
From Rank 0 forward, walking speed was determined by Agility. If a Rank 1 had 60 Agility, he could walk leisurely at 60 km/h. Theoretically at peak Rank 5 with Agility at 1 000 000, crossing the continent would take a bit over a minute, at just walking speed.
'With a bit of distraction, but if they send someone stronger, I might have to rethink my plan.'
The next morning Lucien was escorted by almost 20 men out of the palace, since they donned imperial armors and uniforms, nobody though sending high ranking practitioners was necessary. Who would dare offend an entourage from the imperial military in the imperial capital. And anyone above Rank 2 had their more important tasks to deal with.
Lucien couldn't feel the aura or anything like that to recognize the ranks of the men, it was by the stars on the shoulders of the uniforms he got it.
In the imperial army, being able to done the uniform meant that you are at least Rank 0.
At each Rank after than, a star would be added signifying the power level of that person. This could be used in many ways, including concealing the power of the army, by not putting more stars after a breakthrough or putting more even at lower rank as to scare the enemy spies away, but that was only done in war times, or when war times were approaching.
All the men following Lucien were either no stars or 1 star uniforms.
'It seems I will have my chance, I guess I will have about half an hour, if they are stupid - an hour.'
He continued pretending to be a kid seeing the world for the first time, impressed by everything, while at the same time looking for his chance.
'There it is.'
Looking at a small store in a relatively backward alley with sparkling eyes, he headed for it.
"Young lord, could you reconsider, there is probably nothing worthy your presence in there?"
"If you go in that small shop at most 2-3 of us can follow you in, it would be inconvenient if something was to happen.'
'Ohh, something will happen.'
"It's ok, it's just a shop, what could happen..."
The guards shook their heads helplessly, but couldn't say anything too convince the lord.
After they entered the small shop, only 2 guard followed, both Rank 1.
Lucien looked around excitedly.
'It's time to give it a shot.'
Lucien looked towards the old man behind the counter.
'All Existence, how much would it cost me to cast an illusion on this common old man, making him think I'm a monster and giving him an extreme scare."
-Affecting living beings is possible-
-Below Rank 0, the price is 100 existence points-
-The price is 10x for each Rank above-
-The price might vary depending on the path and stats of practitioner-
'So it's pretty much the promotion price.'
'And this is going to leave me without a scrap, I hope this operation succeeds.'
'Affect him.'
The old man. who was seating peacefully behind the counter, completely ignoring the imperial guards, as if he had seen all kinds of customers. Maybe this was his business tactics or some other reason. All of a sudden, he saw something out of the corner of his eyes.
Looking up he saw the young lord the guards were escorting, turning into blood red monster, it grew up a bit, reaching teenagers height, sharp fangs grew out and claws protruded.
It looked like a devil from the deepest reaches of hell. All of a sudden a third eye opened and looked at the old man as if understanding and acknowledging that the old man has recognized it and he cannot be left alive.
The old man turned pale at once, falling of his chair he screamed at the top of his lungs.
"DEVILL, IT'S THE DEVIL."
Nobody could see the state of the old man as he fell behind the counter, but his voice caused a commotion. Even if it was not the main street there was still influx of people, as this was the capital, it was populated everywhere.
Everyone rushed to see what happened, they didn't really believe a devil appeared in the capital, as they were just legends on the continent.
The sudden influx of people startled the guard, the street was filled with people.
The 2 Rank 1 guards inside the shop were also startled at the sudden scream and went forward angrily to see why did the old man screamed about the devil all of a sudden.
It took a second to get to the counter and look behind it, finding a fainted old man.
They considered arresting him for causing disturbance.
One of the guards decided to ask what does the young lord think, turning around, he stood there stupefied at the sight.
Lucien was no longer there. Both of them didn't notice at all how he slipped away, and looking at the crowded street outside, finding a 5 year old child in their midst would be easier said than done.
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