MTLNOVEL Chapter 666: Running out of time
"She was less troublesome than I had thought." Eren sat on the chest, with a girl lying on the ground before him, unconscious.
The door leading to the room had been closed by him before he even started his sight. Fortunately, the barrier had lasted long enough to ensure that the battle fluctuations didn't disturb the surroundings.
It helped that this place was more or less the junkyard of the elite in the King's Clan. Even after using his divine sense, he couldn't see anyone else nearby.
"The Sword was more effective on these people than I had thought. It's as if this was made for them."
Within a few seconds of the battle starting, he had already finished it after knocking her out. He sent the sword that was known as the Sword King's Sword back within the mark on his shoulder.
"Shall we begin?" After catching his breath, he sat on his knees before the girl, and placed a finger on her forehead.
He started trying to manipulate her consciousness to control it, despite knowing that it wasn't going to be easy.
She was a member of a clan that once ruled over the Upper Realm. There was no way her consciousness was going to be easy to invade, even if she was unconscious.
It was just as he had expected. The physical battle had taken only a few seconds. But the battle to control her consciousness was much longer, even after he used the treasure that had helped him in controlling the Left Guardian of Necromancer Tower.
It took him over two and a half hours to finally succeed in controlling her. If he was still to fail, he would have outright given up on controlling her, because he had to move to the next mark zone.
He could only stay within a marked area for three hours. If he stayed longer, it was no different than failing the main task, which rewarded him with opportunities to descend.
"Only a little over twenty minutes to move. That wasted so much time." He sat with his back resting against a treasure chest, his body covered in sweat.
Even though he hadn't fought in a hour long physical battle, but just the attempt to control the consciousness of a mere youngster of the clan had almost exhausted him.
"Wake up. It's time to leave," he said while bringing out a bottle filled with refined aura used by the people of the upper world to recover some of their strength during emergencies.
It was something that he had stolen from the Ice Maiden Palace Master's storage ring that he robbed from her, along with the key of his handcuffs. He hadn't expected it to come in handy so soon.
"I should have stolen a few more," he praised the liquid.
Only half of it had managed to recover his complete stamina and strength. It was also fortunate that his level was much lower than the Palace Master. Even an entire bottle wouldn't have been enough for her.
The girl, receiving his instructions, also opened her eyes. She stood up and respectfully bowed before Eren, calling him master.
"Do you have something else that you can wear?" Eren asked, with a wry smile on his lips.
Although the battle was short, most of her clothes were torn, revealing almost everything. Her body had healed, but her clothes hadn't managed to heal, revealing her bare skin.
The girl nodded, and waved her hand, taking the remnant of whatever torn clothes that she had on her body, not leaving anything to Eren's imagination.
"I could've sworn that controlling her didn't lower her intelligence. Does she simply not see me as a man?" Eren mumbled, slightly surprised at her attitude where she was changing before him.
She wore new clothes, which were completely identical to before.
"Wait, do you have more clothes? Possibly ones that could be worn by a man?" Eren asked.
The girl shook her head. She only kept clothes that would fit her, as their clothes were often damaged during practice sessions. Of course, they were never destroyed to the extent they were with Eren.
She didn't have any clan clothes that would suit a male. Eren's plan to disguise as a clan member had also gone down the drain.
If he had more time, he would have asked her to knock out another disciple of the clan to steal their clothes. But the time was running out.
"Fine. Give me whatever clothes you have. Just make sure it's not a skirt. I want pants that are unisex, and a shirt."
The girl lowered her head to look at her chest. She had a puzzled gaze as she started unbuttoning her shirt.
"You idiot, I'm talking about your spare clothes. Are you going to walk out naked if you give me yours?"
"Master, these are the ones I have left."
"You only kept one spare?" Eren facepalmed himself while the girl simply nodded.
"Urgh. Fine." Eren sighed deeply. He showed the girl the holographic map.
"Can you tell me what's the fastest way to reach this place within twenty minutes? The method also needs to ensure that I'm not caught as an outsider."
"This place..." The girl tilted her head. "It's impossible to reach that place within twenty minutes. Even at the fastest, it would take at least forty minutes, if the criteria is to not be detected."
"Forty minutes? That's too much. Is there no other option?"
"There is one option, but it carries the risk of you being detected. That's why I didn't include that during the time calculation."
"Since it's an emergency. We will go with that plan. Tell me what's that method? I will think of something."
After Eren heard of the method, he was almost at a loss whether to laugh or cry. The method didn't come with the possibility of getting caught. Instead, it came with a certainty to get caught!
Her plan to reach that place within twenty minutes was to steal a ship and use it!