It hadn't been a day since Armad had traveled back in time. Everything was happening with the speed of a whirlwind, causing the System to take time before it finished with the evaluation of his skills.
Armad was now convinced that cultivation was the most important thing to pursue, considering that his pol years were meager 55 years back home.
And naturally, he had been quite surprised when he arrived here inside the prince's body.
His biggest shock was the fact that he was about sixteen to seventeen years of age, while the prince was not much older than himself but the gap between their pol years was staggering.
At barely eighteen years of age, the prince had a staggering five thousand and about ninety years of pol.
This was a great shock for Armad considering he was brought up literally in cultivation, and the fact that they were both Wilberforce.
The gap was glaring and the fact that what remained for the prince to step into the late core formation stage was just about ten years of pol.
The appearance of Armad fastened the unfinished journey of the prince with the help of the pills he recently acquired. He was now at the late core formation level which began at six thousand years of pol.
It should be recalled that core formation cultivation started between a thousand and ten thousand years of pol. Pseudo-Deva was attained immediately after that and then the Deva level.
It amazed him how a not-quite eighteen-year-old could acquire such cultivation without any help.
He was even more captivated by the fact that it wasn't taken and given to him through a skill, nor a forceful acquisition of cultivation from one person to another. Rather, the prince rightfully acquired his pol years through sheer meditation.
In those days, cases of stolen pol years were greatly frowned upon by the Wilbrforces. And being a prince would have made it all the more despicable considering that the prince needed a good foundation to start with.
Whatever he did when he became older would be none of anyone's business. Cultivation gotten effortlessly like that wouldn't pose any problems. But despite this, Armad was shocked to find out that the prince acquired all of his pol years with his sweat.
And now, he discovered that all of the modified skills were his own and not the prince's. The System probably didn't trust the prince's skills with Armad, or because of another reason altogether.
Nevertheless, Armad was only full of gratitude for the System for giving him a skill that would aid in building his cultivation.
Self-defense was the most important thing while fighting, for saving one's self gave a chance for success. And success, even delayed was a good thing. And having super tough skin that couldn't be pieced by a sword meant that one was invincible. The thought of this alone was exhilarating for Armad.
Without wasting another minute, he asked the System how to hone his skills and how best to use the Miyura.
He knew without being told that the Miyura was the strongest and most effective skill among all his skills. It was only fitting that he would seek to know more about it first.
The System sent a new message in reply:
[You can enhance your Miyura by using the right pills, but you are still not up to the level of creating that particular pill.]
After reading the message Armad could only stare dumbfounded at it.
So he wasn't up to that level yet? But no problem, since he could still use the Miyura even at 1.1% and could also lend pol years from it.
Armad had been able to lend and add to his own even while he was only at fifty-five years of pol. Even at that, he got more than a hundred borrowed pol on top of his own.
He could imagine exceeding the core formation when he borrowed it now that he was more than six thousand pol years old.
The System's reply didn't deter him a bit and he went on to ask another question:
'How can I use the Negrinki and in what way can I enhance it from its current 1.4 strength?'
[You can use it by pulling it off your core and it could be enhanced by using the right pills by the regular usage of the Negrinki. That could take years and you are still not eligible to create such pills.]
Armad was speechless for a while. So he could enhance neither his Miyura nor the Negrinki at the moment!
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Undeterred by this, he asked again:
'But what are the requirements to be fulfilled before I can reach that level?' He asked.
This time, he was ignored entirely by the System, giving him the impression that he wasn't up to the level of receiving a reply for such questions.
After some time, he removed his mind away from that issue and focused on another.
He had never used Negrinki before so it would be the first thing to try out after his encounter with the System.
In readiness for that, he gathered all of his remaining cultivation boosters from last night and chomped them down.
Shortly afterward, his cultivation rose from 6,035 to 6,091, making it an almost 60-year rise in cultivation within a short period.
Normally, the length of time from when he eats to when his body reacts is never much. It usually ranged from minutes to an hour to absorb.
Meditation normally took him about twelve to eighteen hours before getting such amount of pol years.
But this time, it would be considered an extraordinary feat even among the elite cultivators. To acquire as much as sixty pol years in a day, and that not even on the foundation or middle stages of cultivation, was quite spectacular.
It was the norm that acquiring cultivation in childhood was quite faster and during the early stages of foundation and middle. But it became harder the higher one went.
But for Armad this was coincidentally the level when he unwittingly stumbled upon a unique speed-enhancing skill. He was faster in gaining pol years now than he did during his earlier stages.
As if on cue, a message from the system appeared just then:
[You can further enhance your cultivation by taking more pills which you can get through a nutritious diet. Feed the System nutritional food and the System will make you pills that could enhance your cultivation prodigiously.]
Armad stared wordlessly at the message. It didn't come as a surprise to him though.
It was quite clear that the System needed food to function. And it should also be expected that the more nutritious the food was, the better the pills and the faster the cultivation.
The next step to take suddenly became clear in his mind.
First, he needed an uninterrupted supply of food in his room, food that had the needed nutrients in it.
He also needed to find out other ways of getting it since his prodigious appetite would render all the palace supply none within a short time.
That would undoubtedly cause a great stir which he didn't need at the moment, were it to happen.
He knew that there were spies who worked for Ikenga within the palace walls and also about the city.
Caution was needed by him at all times in all his does. Anything that could expose his situation and in essence, his secret, was highly unwelcomed to him.
And so, it was necessary to find out a less obvious means of getting what he needed.
Still, food alone couldn't be enough for him.
Then, his line of thought strayed to something that could best suit his needs.
What he needed along with the food was a variety of animal protein, especially demon-beasts flesh. The meat he ate earlier was that of a demon tigress. It wasn't very large and it used to have a pol of not more than fifty years when alive.
But feeding on it gave him that extraordinary skill that enhanced his skin toughness.
He knew that his skin would be much tougher if he could get ahold of a bigger demon-beast.
The first thing that came to his mind at that insight was hunting. He could sneak out and go hunting, find one, roast it, and eat without anyone the wiser.
But then, there is one setback to this, namely; from the time he sets foot alone, out of the city, spies would close in on him. And there was the King's Legion, whose hit list had his name at the top.
It wouldn't be out of place for them to send a legion of Devas after him to end his life there and then.
This venture was dangerous whatever way he looked at it.
Taking his men along was also not an option, for they would soon become suspicious. Speaking of his men, Armad decided that it was high time that he introduced them to those wonder pills of his.
They also needed it to enhance their cultivation, only that he needed a careful strategy on how to go about it.
He was still not strong enough to face those that stood in his way, both strength and cultivation-wise.
That night passed him away thinking until sunrise when he rose and left the room.
He met Musa standing guard over the table that was already set and without wasting time, he fell to.
In no time, only the empty dishes. remained.
As Musa cleared the table, Armad instructed the System to make more pills.
But soon, Musa returned with another meal, which was quite a surprise for Armad. He had been thinking of how to divert the attention of his people off himself when Musa returned.
He wondered why Musa of all people who was aware of his predicament would return now barely half an hour after serving him breakfast.
As if reading his mind Musa smiled and started explaining himself to him.
"The kitchen staff are unaware of this development, Your Highness." Said Musa.
"I told them that you have come across some vagrants in the city whom you wish to feed. You do not need anyone knowing of it or even questioning it.
"And that you store the food in your magic bag as soon as I present it to you. And then you sneak out of the palace in disguise when going out to feed them.
"You also forbid anyone to speak anything about it and there is severe punishment for anyone who breaks this rule.
"As we speak now, another pot is cooking and I hope my judgment isn't wrong Your Highness."
Musa bowed as he reached the end of his wounding narration.
After listening to his head of kitchen staff's ingenious plan to cover up for him, Armad's eyes shone with pride and admiration.
Musa was made up of a smarter stock of wits than many. Armad thought inwardly.
He raised his fist in salutation and then waved the servant away.
Left alone with his piles of dishes, Armad placed one leg above the other and started eating. He soon became bored of his sitting position and decided to change into a more comfortable one.
So, an Armad in the body of a dead prince placed both legs atop the table and started gulping dish after dish of food.
Gulping is the right word since there was little chewing to be heard from a distance. And already, he had taken precautions against anyone who might barge in.
All his guards and servants had been excused and his spiritual sense was on high alert.
It took him a short time to demolish the mountain of food before him and then went on to instruct the System to make a new set of pills.
Before long, a hundred or so cultivation boosters were in his possession.
But to his utter dismay, the skin-enhancers weren't much despite eating quite some meat.
Only thirteen were made for him this time.