The Extra Prince Sets Out To Conquer The World

Having passed through the dangerous Lacerta constellation, which consisted of wetlands, we reached the Sagittarius constellation, which was classified as a relatively safe zone even within the Labyrinth of Constellations, and briefly put down our luggage and began our meal during the march.

This damned area was made up of rocky mountains without a single blade of grass, so it was too hard for my lacking stamina.

“The monsters disappear, but the mud doesn’t, right?”

Precia shook off the mud stuck to the soles of her shoes and asked as if it was strange, and I answered in an exhausted voice, leaning my body against the soft military pack, tired from the march.

“That’s not that it doesn’t disappear, but that it disappears slowly.”

The internal environment of the ruins was basically composed of mana, so it naturally dissipated when leaving that area.

However, in the case of embodied lifeforms like monsters, they did not dissipate even when leaving the area based on the power of the crystal and their life activities.

So when obtaining herbs and such that could be found in the labyrinth, one had to pull them out by the roots, not just pluck the leaves or flowers.

Things that could become magic ingredients didn’t die easily as long as the roots were alive.

Of course, if they had roots or were chopped up but still had a tenacious vitality that didn’t die, they could be harvested without much effort.

Or it was fine to kill them and take the crystals.

Although the effect was weaker than harvesting them as is, the crystals had similar effects.

“But if things inside disappear when leaving the area, how can artifacts be taken out of the ruins?”

At Jade’s question, I regulated my breathing, got up, and answered.

“Because not all things are made by the power of the ruins. Things embodied by the power of the ruins gradually dissipate when taken out of the ruins, but things that aren’t don’t dissipate even when taken out.”

“Aha, is that so? Then how do you differentiate such things?”

“If you take them out and they don’t disappear, you’re lucky, and if they disappear, you’re unlucky. It’s a gamble.”

Still, since they don’t turn to powder all at once, even if they are taken out of the ruins, they can be used a few times.

Some time ago, a legendary elixir was excavated deep in the ruins.

Although it gradually dissipated as it was an item embodied by the power of the ruins, there was a case where a dying patient took it before it dissipated and survived.

By the way, there was still a bounty on that ruin-produced elixir.

This was because items created by the power of the ruins respawned like monsters.

“Ah, it’s not that there’s no way to distinguish them at all, you can tell if it’s an artifact if it doesn’t respawn after a certain amount of time has passed after leaving the area.”

“Oh, what about the respawn time?”

“I dunno about that either?”

The respawn times were all different.

But if there was one thing known, it was that monsters respawned quickly.

“3 o’clock direction! Monster appearance!”

Just then, a flock of harpies flew towards where we were.

Although the Sagittarius constellation was considered a safe zone, there were only a handful of places in these ruins that were truly safe enough to stretch one’s legs and sleep.

The reason this area was classified as a safe zone was that there were hardly any monsters and the few that existed weren’t very strong.

“Somehow I’m starting to feel sorry.”

Jade ate biscuits leisurely while watching the holy knights and combat priests fighting hard against the monsters created by the ruins up ahead.

“So what? They seem to have leeway in their expressions.”

I also watched leisurely while tearing at dried meat.

The holy knights created a divine power barrier with their shields to protect the companions, and the combat priests launched long-range divine magic to shoot down the harpies.

Mobility was the problem, but each attack wasn’t very strong.

At my words, Jade looked at me as if asking what I meant.

“Pardon?”

Ah, sorry, the ones you felt sorry for weren’t those guys fighting and doing chores, but the friends who would be following behind?

Of course, there was no way Jade would look kindly upon these guys.

It was only natural since the Sea Denomination or whatever pushed the successive Winter Wood Sages into the damn cold Bastille Mountains and were Arcana who tried to kill his teacher.

Among those holy knights and priests, there was probably not a single one who didn’t know of the Arcana’s existence.

I noticed Jade’s true feelings, but there was no need to cause trouble with the bus driver holding the steering wheel.

“Yeah, Jay. As you said, we should help out too!”

I spoke loudly on purpose so everyone could hear and winked at Jade.

Seeing my wink, Jade blinked his eyes a few times as if he didn’t understand for a moment, then as if he caught the meaning of my words, he let out a small laugh, then quickly composed his expression and raised his magic staff.

“Of course! Young Master! Let’s go, Ganger!”

As expected, he does well even without being told.

Jade stood behind the holy knights and assisted them along with the Doppelganger-type.

Jade calmly fired magic bullets, and the Doppelganger-type shot arrows with the bow of Donovan, the 11th Apostle of the Dawn Star Denomination.

Thanks to the extraction and insertion of the 11th Apostle Donovan’s mana blood circuit and the 6th Apostle Agistream’s mana circuit, my Doppelganger-type Yuan Prototype could function as both a warrior and a mage.

“Thank you! Brothers!”

The holy knights and priests thanked Jade and the Doppelganger-type and accelerated their attacks.

Good, well done. Become friendly like that and let them drop their guard, so they’ll nicely open up the back of their heads for a good strike.

*******

In the intermediate area leading to the depths after leaving the defense magic installation area at the entrance of the labyrinth, the Corona Borealis area, the Sword Fairy Nayuta stopped for a moment.

“Sheesh, where did that bitch go?”

It was good that she entered the ruins chasing the Sword Demon Anastasia, but the deeper she went into the ruins, the more her sense of smell was paralyzed like a hunting dog due to the mana filling the surroundings, making it impossible to distinguish where she went.

“Tsk, it seems the distance has been greatly reduced, but why can’t I tell where she went? Strange.”

Nayuta, who was pondering, scratched her head roughly and opened the door leading to the next area.

In any case, just standing still would only increase the distance from the Sword Demon.

Thus, the Sword Fairy stuck crystals in the shape of the Hydra constellation into the door and moved from the Corona Borealis area to the Hydra area.

And dozens of minutes after she left, the Sword Demon Anastasia stopped at that spot.

“Hmm?”

Noticing from the familiar remnants of mana that the Sword Fairy had followed her up to here, Anastasia narrowed her eyes and pondered for a moment, then moved to the Aquila area instead of the Hydra area.

She found the Sword Fairy following her bothersome.

*******

Amelie examined the copy of the ruins’ internal map produced by the Twilight Company that Yuan had given her instead of the map used by the Sea Denomination’s exploration team, narrowing her eyes.

The Twilight Company’s map was more elaborate and contained the latest information compared to the Sea Denomination’s.

Although not much time had passed since the Sea Denomination’s exploration team left the ruins, the internal structure of the ruins seemed to have changed, as there were differences from the map.

It was the difference between a group that sent an exploration team with the purpose of artifacts and a group that sent an exploration team with the purpose of understanding the internal structure of the ruins.

To the Twilight Company, artifacts were merely additional products that could be obtained from smugglers.

Information was the goose that laid the golden eggs.

“Whew, it won’t be easy, will it?”

When she opened the door at the end of the area and saw that it wasn’t the constellation area they originally intended to go to, Yuan lightly poked the map for the perplexed Amelie.

Thanks to that, she was able to quickly gather her wits and recalculate the route.

In that way, after passing through a few more areas and driving away the swarming monsters of the ruins, the exploration team tidied up the surroundings to make a base camp for rest and took a break.

Just because the members of the exploration team rested didn’t mean Amelie, who led the team, could rest as well.

“This map must be quite expensive.”

When Amelie said she would pay the price, Yuan shook his head with a bright smile.

“It’s nothing much. Not only did you escort us all the way here, but you also took care of our share.”

The bags of the escorts protecting Yuan were filled with mana crystals, excavated artifacts, and archaeological data that could only be obtained in the ruins.

For Amelie, it was a scheme to prevent Yuan, who had the permit, from leaving later, so while she felt sorry, she was also grateful.

“Then I’ll be playing with my friends, so take your time talking.”

Yuan naturally withdrew and headed towards Jade, who was recording the remnants of the Mythical Era located throughout the ruins.

As he cleverly withdrew, Amelie put her heads together with Rotulus, the explorers, and the archaeologists to redo the plan.

“We haven’t even left the entrance area with the defense magic installed yet, but if the map is this different, there’s a high possibility that the depths, our destination, will be completely different from what we understand.”

The exploration team’s lead explorer Leming’s words were affirmed by the other explorer Fasil and the archaeologist Egon Schiele.

“In any case, no one has a grasp of the depths of the ruins. The premise of the exploration hasn’t changed.”

“That’s right. Now that we have a more accurate map, we just need to reroute.”

When exploring ruins, it was usually divided into two types: setting a destination and preparing a route and supplies accordingly, or exploring in all directions without setting a destination.

The exploration team led by Amelie had the goal of bringing back a holy object said to be located in the Cygnus area deep in the ruins, according to the prophecy of the Wheel of Fortune.

“The next area is the last of the areas with defense magic installed. It will start to get really dangerous now.”

As the internal location of the ruins constantly changed, the location where defense magic was installed also constantly changed, but the areas classified as the entrance areas had little change and danger.

However, the further in they went from now on, both the degree of change and the danger would increase exponentially.

“Would it be good to pass through here and here and go to this place for the route?”

When Amelie pointed at the map and asked, Rotulus pondered for a moment and shook his head.

“No, a desert zone has formed in this area, so it has bad compatibility with the Sea Denomination.”

Although the exploration team’s explorers and archaeologists were all first-rate, they still listened to the opinion of Rotulus, who had experience in the ruins.

The areas always changed locations, but the constellation areas rarely changed unless it was exceptional, so experience was even more important.

“If it’s a desert, it will be tough. Then it might be safer to move from here to the depths of the ruins through the Corona Borealis area.”

“According to this map, it seems safe to move that way. It looks like it would be faster to go from the Corona Borealis area to the Aquila area, but since the Hydra area will be more advantageous in terms of environmental compatibility, we should go that way, right?”

“That’s right. The problem is how to find and move to Cygnus in the depths.”

Even the Twilight Company’s map had the depths roughly drawn or not marked at all.

“Don’t worry about that. That clown left behind a celestial compass.”

The celestial compass Rotulus took out of his pocket was a magic tool created solely for exploring ruins, and when a mana crystal obtained from the destination area was embedded at the tip of the magnetic needle, it pointed in the direction where that destination was located.

“I thought we would have to use divine power to divine and wander around the ruins for months, so that’s a relief.”

The celestial compass was not only difficult to make but also expensive, so it was not actually used.

Therefore, most exploration teams used astrology to find their way.

As befitting its name, the Labyrinth of Constellations, the effect of astrology was maximized inside the ruins.

“Haha, but no matter what, we can’t leave Your Holiness in a ruins like this for months.”

“I came prepared for it though. Then shall we try to persuade Mr. Ian now?”

Amelie looked around, searching for Yuan.

She had worked hard to show respect for his intentions until now, so from now on, it was her turn to have her intentions respected.

However, no matter how much she looked around, Yuan was nowhere to be seen among the companions.

“Where did Mr. Ian go?!”

As Amelie searched for Yuan, the holy knights and priests who were taking a break and praying blinked their eyes and looked around.

“Huh? Where did he go? He was over there recording the remnants of the Mythical Era.”

At a holy knight’s words, an ominous premonition flashed through Amelie’s mind.

Her close friend with transcendent intuition had told her to beware of thieves.