Jade pondered on the problem ‘It’s smart, naturally so. The more it learns the better it will be able to make contingencies against their attempts at saving their friends. It might even give the captured person good treatment just to learn more and to ensure the person won’t try to risk her life to escape and threaten to kill the person when they try to save the person instead of fighting. The longer the problem lasts the worse it gets.’

Jade asked “What are you willing to offer?” Satoshi said “We will give you all the Magic we know. It’s not much just two types, Plant Magic and Wind Magic”. Jade shook his head and said “That’s too little for such a dangerous mission, success isn’t guaranteed even though I have spatial technology”.

Satoshi thought for a while and said “I’ll add scientific knowledge; masters level to Professorate degree and National research data on Nuclear Fission”. Jade’s eyes shined with greed and a smile appeared on his face as he said “You can remove the magic and replace it with Nuclear Fusion knowledge”.

Satoshi shook his head and said “That would be giving too much and I don’t want you to set off nukes everywhere. I know it won’t bother you”. Jade said “Oh come on, you’re already giving me Nuclear Fission research why not add the other one. I’ll even give you magic if you feel it isn’t enough. I promise I’ll only blow up half the planet”

Satoshi shook his head and replied “The research data on Nuclear Fission is just a bunch of failures so I don’t mind giving it if you feel it is valuable. That’s my final offer”. Jade sighed and said “Deal. But I have to make some preparations”.

Jade teleported back to his portal storage lab and sent a message to Mira, he remembered that she said that the people she was with planned to go to a military research facility he wanted them to look out for information on Nuclear Fusion since Satoshi refused to give him any.

Jade thought ‘If I can make nukes I’ll be able to kill Rank 20 monsters with relative ease. But I still need high stats to get the best evolutions. I wonder how I should go about that… I don’t think fighting monsters and working out will help much. I have to focus on one stat but intelligence is extremely hard to improve and the parasite would have surely taken control of me by the time I get to pinnacle talk less of Transcendental… *sigh* One step at a time’.

Jade teleported back to the hall after telling Mira to look out for information on how to make nukes, the people in the hall were all looking outside, wondering where Jade teleported to. Jade thought ‘I never thought about it from other people’s perspective. They’ll never know where I teleport to once I teleport, they can’t even imagine that I have a separate dimension all to myself’.

Jade clapped his hands and the focus of the people in the room returned to him. He said “I’ll be going now, tell me the location of the monster”. Satoshi brought a map, pointed to a certain spot and said “Ch­­­ubu region, the name of the person is Ayaka”. Most of the territories of the Daimyos were in Tokyo with only 2 of them being in Hokkaido the other regions were filled with monsters.

Jade said “With that settled, I’ll need you guys make it official”. Everyone looked around in confusion. Daisuke said “He wants you to sign a contract with Conquerors Word”. Jade smiled and said “Yes, thanks Daisuke for clarifying. The terms I want are: Plant Magic and Wind Magic are the only Magic you have. You are not hiding any other Magic from me. If you are not hiding any other Magic from me then you are to give me knowledge of both Magics completely without leaving anything out when I return Ayaka the Daimyo to you. If you are hiding any Magic from me then this contract is void. You are to also give me all the information you currently have concerning Nuclear Fission without leaving anything out when I return Ayaka the Daimyo to you. I will not take responsibility for any harm, mental or physical, that comes to Ayaka the Daimyo before and during the rescue operation. If Ayaka dies before or during the rescue it will be accepted and I will only be given one Magic knowledge of my choice for my efforts. I will not give a false report of my mission and you will not give me false rewards for my rewards. Is that acceptable to you”

Satoshi and the Daimyos looked at Jade in surprise, they didn’t expect him to doubt their intentions so much and make contingencies for any trick they tried to play. Jade said to their stunned faces “Everyone of you must make this contract this contract. I don’t know who is supposed to give me the wind magic but you all have to agree to enforce it. And besides what happens if you don’t follow your ‘Word’? Does that have to be specified too?”

The Daimyos broke out of their shock and Yubi said “It has to be specified”. Jade said “Good, I would prefer it if you guys could use your life as a collateral but I’ll leave you guys to decide that”. The Daimyos and Satoshi convened for a while to discuss and they wrote out a contract on a piece of paper for Jade to inspect.

The collateral that they chose was all the en-code and souls that they had and would get for the rest of their lives; it would go to Jade if they failed to complete their part of the contract. Jade accepted it and they all used the Conquerors Word privilege while reciting the terms of the contract out loud.

Jade’s IP said to him ‘A Conqueror is giving you his word’ and showed him a screen that had the terms of the contracts that the Conquerors recited written on it. The IP said after Jade finished rereading the contract ‘Do you accept the Conquerors Word?’ Jade said ‘Yes’ and the IP said ‘You are bound’. The IPs of the other Daimyos also said ‘You are bound’.

Jade nodded, activated the Soul Map privilege and focused on the souls around the region Satoshi showed. He saw the Rank 23 soul of the Oni and the souls around it and used that to determine the location he would teleport to. He was about to deactivate the privilege when he noticed a golden soul in the Oni’s territory. When he inspected the soul he knew that it was a Crown, a Crown with Authority level 1.

A little more than 30 days had passed and the Oni already had a Crown that meant that it chose to go for a Crown with lower authority and it intended to increase its authority only after it had advanced to the King job. It was a good strategy since it gave early advantages to the monster and also because the creation of Crowns took 30 days and the time could not be shortened.

Jade changed his plans when he saw the crown and teleported back into his lab. He appeared in the room that had the Light Gate in it and activated it with a mental command that informed the machine of the coordinate he wanted to teleport to.

The light within the circular gate rippled and roughly showed the area outside the territory of the Oni. Jade walked through the gate and appeared in the no-man’s land around the Oni’s territory. Jade walked toward the territory of the Oni as he thought ‘From what Satoshi said, the Oni will know when anyone enters its territory. But there was nothing about if it can monitor the intruder’s location. Well it’s not like any of that is going to matter’.

…