William kept his comment about domes to himself, and simply walked into a grand place, one that looked like a huge palace, with ten different domes alone in it, a mid-level wall, and a big garden.
It was all white, making it as if someone used a grand brush and left a white stain there. William saw many statues describing masters, either training, releasing their techniques, or fighting monsters.
"This way," Fonda led them inside the massive palace, ending up into a huge hall where around thirty other royal members waited for them.
"You don't want to be a direct disciple of any of us?!!!" This came as a shock, not only to the royal members here, but also to Tara and even Angelica.
Having someone from the royal family as a master to anyone was a huge honour. People ruling cities were famous for their strength, wealth, and resources. Anyone ending up being under them would be like winning the lottery.
And yet William simply rejected such an offer right on the spot, without even batting an eye. "Then… What do you want to share what you learnt with us?" Fonda cleared up her throat, feeling more admiration towards William.
She sized him up and down, the same thing everyone else here did when they heard William's direct and straightforward rejection.
In their eyes, this young master was showing more air around him like he was a veteran master or something.
"Hmm…" William knew that sticking to his rejection would end up in a bad situation. He already got his focus and interest over that royal library, wanting to delve into its secrets at any cost.
And yet if he rejected anything from their side, they'd end up cutting his access to their place. So, he had to think about a middle ground, one that'd solve both sides' needs, without ending up for him to lose a lot.
He already had a way to do it. The scrolls he found there spoke about three different things, one of them was nothing that worth anything in his eyes: the outer world's news.
He decided before coming here to share such intel with them. Even if they knew what was going on in the outer world, and knew lots of its knowledge, they wouldn't be able to use these efficiently as they didn't live there.
As for what he wanted in return for this, he had three things in mind.
"First I want access to more scrolls like these," William raised a finger in their faces, making them more puzzled.
"What do you mean?" one of the leaders of the royal family asked, "everything we have is in the library you visited. We'll grant you access to everything, as you can tell we didn't limit your access to any."
"I know," William nodded, before shaking his head, "yet that wasn't what I meant. I want more scrolls, more from other places, not from this city."
"This…" his words landed, and many masters exclaimed in surprise, looking at each other in doubt.
"Don't worry, you'll get to know part of what I'll learn from these scrolls as well," William knew such a task would be indeed hard, time and effort consuming to them. He had to throw in a bait, something these formidable masters would crave for.
"For example," he cleared up his throat, boarded the stage as he added as if he was lecturing them, "if you managed to make a deal with ten other cities, in exchange for me to decipher part of these scrolls and let them know their content, then you will learn knowledge from ten more places. Like this…"
He didn't need to add more. If this happened, then in the end of all this, this city would be the one with the most knowledge in the entire world. Knowledge was power, and even if William intended to tell useless stuff for them, they'd end up having their prestige rise up in the world.
William knew if they agreed, they'd try to test things out first at their library. And so, he planned to find useful intel from these scrolls, things speaking about high end techniques or methods, so they'd see the overall value in doing this.
Even if the scrolls didn't have such a thing, he didn't care. He would add things from his mind, ending up dazzling them and instigating their greed for more.
"And that is not everything, that's just the first condition," William reminded them of that. And when they asked, he added his other two conditions.
He wanted two different things, one was a portable pocket world, one for each city asking him to do this task. If they ended up inviting a hundred cities to join this deal, then he'd end up with a hundred pocket worlds.
William had craved such pocket worlds for long years already, since the moment he stepped inside the hotel back at the Scorching Lands fort. Yet, and even after looking for these years, he failed to find any pocket world to obtain.
Even when he asked the auction houses to sell him a few, even one, he failed. There weren't any of these precious items sold at any auction. And when he tried to make a deal with the old man who came with lots of pocket worlds at the Scorching Lands city, the man directly refused, even refused to share intel about where he got such lots of pocket worlds.
"And the third?" Fonda asked, feeling like William was greedy, but not for wealth and just for different pricey things.
Portable pocket worlds weren't rare, but they weren't that common. Anyone having these would consider having a great treasure, a deadly weapon that he'd not easily accept to even share access with anyone outside his area of influence.
"I want a portal that can lead me to other worlds," William finally dropped the bomb, saying the main goal of his, the one that made him travel and adventure this world in the first place.
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