Chương 116: Chapter : 116

"You guys can stop arguing right now!" Ken declared happily, wiggling his ring finger so everyone would look at it.

"Because nobody is taking that Core today! As long as I have this legendary good luck ring on my hand, my luck is totally invincible! The universe will definitely hand the prize over to me! You guys might as well just pack up and go home!" The cavern went completely, totally, uncomfortably silent. Prince Hephaestus stared at the blue plastic ring, then looked up at Ken's goofy, smiling face. The tired Prince just blinked, looking utterly confused.

"Uh... is he okay? Did he hit his head on a rock or something?" Princess Hestia let out a loud, mocking scoff. She looked at Iris with pure pity.

"Iris, your servant is a complete and absolute clown. You brought a court jester to a war. It is embarrassing to even look at him." Even Naomi couldn't take it anymore. She aggressively slapped her hand onto her own forehead, dragging her palm down her face in pure misery.

"Ken, I am begging you, please just shut your mouth and step back. I don't even know who you are right now." Ken just kept smiling, keeping his hand held high. Everyone stared at him like he was the dumbest person to ever walk the face of the planet. They completely dismissed him. After a few seconds of staring at his ridiculous plastic ring, the three Royal teams totally ignored him and immediately went back to screaming at each other about who deserved the points. But Ken wasn't being stupid. He was just waiting.

While everyone was busy yelling, the shadows near the high ceiling of the cavern suddenly began to move. It happened incredibly fast. Without any warning, a thick, dark cloud of black smoke dropped straight down from the ceiling, landing right in the middle of the 9th Unit's engineers.

"What the—?!" Prince Hephaestus yelled, stumbling backward. Out from the black smoke, four mysterious, cloaked figures appeared. They were moving with terrifying, highly coordinated speed. They didn't wear Royal uniforms. They were dressed entirely in black stealth gear, with dark masks covering their faces. They were a completely unknown 4th party. Before the tired engineers could even raise their wrenches to defend themselves, one of the masked figures dashed forward.

With a swift, brutal kick, the thief knocked the heavy metal containment box right out of the engineer's hands. The box popped open, and the glowing white stone spilled out onto the floor. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Another masked figure instantly swooped in, snatching the glowing stone off the ground in a single, fluid motion.

"Thieves!" Zaima shouted from the 16th Unit's side.

"Stop them! Don't let them take the Core!"

"Get back here!" Laxmi roared, throwing a massive fireball directly at the masked figures. But the mysterious 4th party was already moving. The thief holding the glowing stone threw a small glass vial onto the floor. It shattered, releasing a massive, blinding flash of light mixed with thick, choking black smoke. The Royals and their servants coughed and shielded their eyes. When the smoke finally cleared a few seconds later, the masked thieves were completely gone.

They had vanished back into the dark tunnels of the dungeon, and they had taken the Core of Luminus with them.

"No!" Princess Iris gasped, her violet eyes wide with shock. Princess Hestia looked absolutely furious, her perfect composure completely shattered.

"They stole it right out of our hands! After them! Do not let them escape the cave!" The entire cavern erupted into total panic. The 13th Unit, the 16th Unit, and the 9th Unit all scrambled toward the tunnel exits, desperately trying to figure out which way the mysterious thieves had run. In the middle of all the chaos, Ken Eliot was the only person who wasn't moving. Ken just stood there, his hands shoved casually deep into his pockets. He watched the Royal teams panic and run around like headless chickens.

He didn't try to stop the thieves. He didn't throw a magic spark, and he certainly didn't look worried. In fact, he looked incredibly amused. He secretly wanted to see who those masked thieves were, because this situation had just become highly entertaining. Because what nobody in that room knew—not the Princesses, not the Princes, and definitely not the mysterious 4th party—was the massive, hilarious truth. Ken had used his absolute, god-like super speed to steal the real Core of Luminus a very long time ago.

While the girls were busy fighting the giant snake monster earlier, Ken had casually jogged over to the pedestal, grabbed the real, highly valuable magical artifact, and shoved it safely into his deep suit pocket. In its place, he had picked up a completely normal, boring, useless cave rock from the dirt and set it on the pedestal. But how did he fool everyone into thinking the boring rock was the real prize? That was where the "lucky" ring came in.

Ken's cheap, shiny blue plastic ring was his trigger object for Perfect Hypnosis. The absolute second he had held it up and yelled his goofy speech, every single person in the room—including the hidden thieves waiting on the ceiling—had looked directly at the ring. The moment they looked at it, they were instantly trapped in his illusion. Ken had simply used his illusion magic to make the boring, dirty cave rock look, feel, and glow exactly like the real Core of Luminus.

So, while the three Royal teams were currently having a massive panic attack, and the highly trained, mysterious ninja thieves were busy sprinting through the dark tunnels fighting for their lives to protect their stolen prize, they were all completely unaware of reality. The 4th party had just executed a flawless, incredibly dramatic heist... to steal a completely worthless, dirty piece of gravel. Ken let out a long, happy yawn.

He patted his suit pocket, feeling the real Core of Luminus safely hidden inside his jacket.

"Well, that was a highly successful distraction," Ken thought to himself, a lazy, satisfied smile spreading across his face.

"Now I just have to figure out how to 'accidentally' stumble upon the real Core on our way home so I don't look suspicious. But first, I am definitely going to enjoy watching these guys chase a shiny rock for a few hours."