4 days later…
Will and Adaline were still living in the same wastelands underneath the stone roof that Will build. The roof was now a little bigger and firmer. Stone walls surrounded the area offering them protection. Obviously Will had built these stone walls using his system.
The stone walls were 3 meters tall and 2-3 inches thick, which would be enough to stop bullets. There were already several bullet holes and cracks on the walls, but that is because Will was testing the durability of the walls.
He built these walls due to the fear of being ambushed by gunmen from the village, led by Jim.
Will, like many other people, wanted to leave the area as soon as possible. But there was a small problem, Adaline.
Adaline was so traumatized by the event that she didn't want to ever go far away from their base. She did not want to take a chance of encountering those men, or other people.
Her fear of humans was deep, she feared them all, except Will, the only one she trusts completely.
Will tried comforting her and encouraged her to leave with him, but it failed. Where Will wanted to go there was bound to be humans. This bit of plot of land barely had anything on it.
Obviously Will could not go without her, because she is his fastest and ONLY mode of transportation, and a friend, so it would be unwise to leave on foot. If he did, he would probably be dead before he could leave this deserted land.
Will decided to wait until Adaline got over her fears, so he built a wall to give her and himself some peace of mind.
He continued mining and mining, he kept mining silver, iron, copper, bronze, and others and collected it all. After that he smelted it and crafted the necessary items he needed like pickaxes. What he didn't use was stuffed in another chest. The deeper he got the more difficult it became, which is why he has not been able to find other types of ores.
His steel axe broke, but he continued making new ones by combining iron and copper. How exactly does this work? He had no idea but he didn't bother questioning it.
The stone and other minerals he mined he also stored it and continued making structures.
He easily made a crappy stone house. It was small and ugly, and yet somehow better than the first house he built in the woods.
"Haha, Jeracraft would be envious of my creation. Don't you think so?" Will turned to Adaline but she had no idea what he was talking about.
"Oh who am I kidding, this is a piece of junk."
Ugly? Oh yeah. Useful? Most definitely.
Without this crappy stone house the heat rays would have burned him up. He knows this but still he wanted to build more.
The stone house wasn't enough to deal with the heat of the sun. Which is why he would stay underground which was cooler and also used the running water to bath himself.
His dream is to build a castle, he has been aiming for that goal even when he played on Minecraft, but his laziness got the best of him and he never got close to building a castle.
This continued for days. His daily routine was mining, smelting, building, eating, sleeping, and repeating.
Adaline kept watch. The field beneath them expanded greatly and they could not even tell that this is a deserted land. It looked more like a grassy field.
Will thought that Adaline might have grown some type of food, as his rations were getting low.
The food inside his chest was almost gone. Will realized the more he mined the more tired he got, the more hungry he became, and so on. He stopped mining for now to make his food last longer.
Adaline seemed to have no problem, as she could eat tiny portions and not feel any hunger. Her ability to last without food was better than a human.
When she was born she did not have any monster parts to eat. But now that she was well fed she could last longer without food.
Will did not understand why she needed to eat when she was an organic creature, basically like a living tree, like Groot. So shouldn't it make sense that she only requires sunlight and water?
But this is a new and entirely different world and species he's dealing with, so common sense does not apply to this world.
The day when Will finally ran out of food, he resorted to eating the grass that Adaline grew. He did not like eating vegetables, but his hunger got the best of him.
He hated the taste but it satisfied his hunger a bit. How he wished he could eat something else right now.
Meanwhile…
5 days went by after Jack, Sam, and July ran away from Sam's village to help their mother/Jack's grandmother.
The ride should have taken 3-4 days at most, but after the black sun, which was unexpected and brought pain and suffering to many, the people were making life difficult for Jack and the rest, so they took longer than expected.
There was blood on Sam's horse and clothing, as well as July's. It wasn't their blood but someone else's.
When they arrived there were some guards there keeping a lookout. The entire village was practically destroyed, but it was currently going under construction.
"Oh hey, it's you." One of the guard's keeping watch was the same guard that Jack and Will met outside of the Kingdom of Reyes. He immediately recognized Jack.
"What happened here?" the three of them asked nervously and scared. The newspaper did not mention who died or lived. So these past few days they were a wreck thinking if Jack's grandmother was alive or not.
"Some people died during the black sun." The guard said.
The three of them got off their rides and ran at full speed towards the inn.
The guards let them through without a care in the world. Their job wasn't to keep people out of the village.
"Mom!"
"Grandma!"
They barged in the inn practically yelling. The inn was decimated by the locusts during the black sun, as were the other buildings nearby.
"What? Why are you screaming?" A fat old woman came out of the bathroom angry and restless.
The three of them hugged her and could finally relax.
"What's wrong?" She asked a bit worried to see her children and grandson acting so weird.
"We heard what happened, and we thought something happened to you." Sam replied.
"Oh that. Nothing happened."
"We read that several people had gone missing, including the Chief."
"Yes, that did happen. I was shocked to hear about it."
They continued chatting for a while. The newspaper said that the villagers who survived had no recollection of what happened, as if that part of their memory was wiped out. As it turns out it was true since Jack's grandmother could not even recall what had happened during the black sun.
But what mattered is that no one else was hurt.
"Julia? Is the innkeeper Julia here?" A soldier entered the inn with a long piece of paper and some ink and a feather.
Since this world did not allow people to have last names aside from Heroes, they also had to add the title of their job. For example, Jack would be apprentice-blacksmith Jack, expert-blacksmith Sam, Sorceress Jasmine.
"That's me." Jack's grandmother stepped forward.
"Sign this, please." he handed her the ink and paper on his hand to her.
"What's this?"
"The kingdom has now recognized this village as part of their property, so in exchange for trades between the kingdom and various villages under its protection, and also protection from any bandits and monsters, you are required to pay taxes if you plan to live here."
"What?" July's eyes shot up.
Julia read through the paper carefully before signing it.
"In a few days the kingdom will send professional builders to help reconstruct your shop. So long. Someone else will come to collect the tax money."
The soldier left without saying anything else. July wanted to say something about this tax policy but could not find the words to say it.
Julia could feel what her daughter wanted to say;
"After the village Chief died, someone else took control of this village. The new Chief signed the village away to the king, so now we have to pay taxes."
Before the village was independent. But after various unforeseen complications arose, many people, including Julia, felt that this was now necessary.
July was grateful that her mother was alive. But the new tax law is going to give her a great deal of trouble. Before she was doing poorly financially, how was she going to afford living in this village if she had to pay taxes?
This is the reason why she moved to this village, to avoid paying taxes and to avoid the fierce competition.
After a while, Jack and July went to their store, and it too was destroyed. It had already been robbed by several people while they were out.
"This is not our day, is it Jack?" July began cleaning the rubble and throwing it out of her store. Jack didn't say much and also helped. They could salvage whatever they could before it could be rebuilt.
It wasn't long until another guard came with ink and a piece of paper to collect the tax money from July. Gritting her teeth she signed the paper. She did not look forward to it, but there was nowhere else to go, only the deserted land but only a fool would go there.
In a blink of an eye a month had passed.
Will probably had the worst time of his life while living in the deserted land.
His daily food contained purely grass and nothing else.
It is very wrong to only survive eating only grass, as it is not easily digested by humans. It can cause several stomach aches, diarrhea, vomiting, which will lead to dehydration. Grass does not contain all the nutritional values that a human needs to survive, so eating it is pointless unless you have nothing else.
That's exactly what happened to Will. The first few days of his diet were painful. On the fifth day, he somehow got used to it, or that's what he thinks.
It is clearly not possible to get used to eating grass, but, for him it did. Not only that but his body was healthier than before. His acne problem was gone, and that was about it. It's merely grass so it can't give him like a super buff or something.
The brown book had many details on the grass he was eating, but it was ordinary grass, so it shouldn't give him any benefits. But he thought of a few things that might have caused this.
This is a new world so maybe the grass is different here.
Adaline growing this grass might have something to do with it.
The system. In the first episode he survived a long fall when he fell in the water, he should've died but didn't, it must mean that his body defies common sense. For him sleeping on a bed cures any poison and injury, so it did make sense.
He knew that it had to be one of these three factors, but wasn't sure which one.
Also, his skin was now developing muscle, and his skin was tanned too because of the sun. He started developing muscle when he began mining for the past month.
Having nothing to do besides mining and building, he focused all his time on those two things.
His base had greatly expanded. There were 2-3 meter walls surrounding his base that spread out 40 meters in a diameter.
The walls looked like stone on the outside, but there were several other minerals inside the walls that even blocked bullets like iron, granite, and others.
He got those from his past month of mining. He had so much iron, copper, and bronze to spare.
Will thought of mining deeper, but there was a thick layer of granite beneath him. It takes him an hour of mining to make a bit of progress through the granite, by then either he would be too tired or his pickaxe would break.
He thought of using explosions by using his magical gun, it worked but he died in the process when the entire cave crushed him.
Fortunately he had his bed nearby so he didn't spawn a million miles away.
When he died he did not have his items with him. This proved to him that when he dies he will not respawn with his stuff. Good thing he had a lot of steel on his chests so he had no trouble mining to retrieve his stuff. But he did not find his body that was trapped in there. Either it was lost or it disappears as soon as he respawns.
This was good because he's been meaning to die to see if his items spawned with him, but could never do it on purpose.
He never used explosions after that and was more careful afterwards.
Adaline on the other hand had shrunk to 5 feet. She used to be 8 feet tall. This happened after Jim shot her and left her a giant hole on her shoulder.
She helped by keeping a watch outside the base. Her grass spread throughout the entire base and further. When someone steps on her grass she will be immediately alarmed. Her fear had died down but not to the point that she's willing to come into contact with another human.
Obviously her food rations ran out. During that time she developed a new ability, she would grow sunflowers on her body which could be used to absorb the energy from the sun. This was her main source of food for now.
It would help if she eats, but since she doesn't move a lot she did not waste energy. As long as she did not waste energy she would be fine without having food.
The first month no one has come close to their base. Will thought that Jim or the bandits from the last village would've found them by now, but it seems that he was wrong.
Will was inside his stone house with a sad look on his face. He was sitting on a stone chair. In front of him, was a stone table, on the table was a stone bowl, and on that bowl was grass. Everything in his base was made out of stone or some kind of rock.
Using wood was out of the question. There weren't any trees nearby so wood was limited. He had a bit of wood left but he needed that for either campfire when it got too cold, or to craft his tools.
If his wood runs out, he would have no choice but to get some more even if that meant walking on foot through this scorching land. Like in sandbox games, wood is essential for surviving throughout the end.
"Well I turn into a vegetable if I eat too much grass?" He started talking to himself and not making any sense at all. He had Adaline with him but she couldn't communicate with him.
He tried burning the grass, it tasted worse. He tried mashing the grass into a form of juice, probably the worst thing he had ever done. He came to learn that eating dried grass was better than eating fresh grass.
"Bon appetit."
He munches on the grass and tears start flowing down his cheeks.
Not far away was a man basically dragging his body through the deserted land. He covered his face with his shirt to protect him from the sunray, but it was still unbearable.
He fell down face flat on the ground. He reached to his back to take a sip of water, but the bottle he carried was empty. He shook the can as much as he could for a tiny drop of water, but nothing.
"Please, Lea, just one drop…"
He spoke in elven tongue. This man is obviously Arbor.
It took him 3 weeks to arrive at the deserted land, and the past week he had been searching for Adaline without rest.
An elf's most powerful weapon is nature, but there was no such thing in here, only burning rocks and the intense heat of the sun.
He dragged his body using his hands, although he was only able to move forward one inch at a time, and each time became increasingly harder. He couldn't even open his eyes anymore because the sun was too blinding for him.
Then, he felt something on his hand. It was grass.
"Grass?" He touched the grass and it felt fresh despite the intense heat pressure of the sun.
It was only a few strands of grass but this meant something to him.
'There must be a forest nearby, or even a source of water.'
Without water grass could not survive, and also soil but there is no soil nearby.
He wanted to get up but he was too weak to continue. Arbor fainted on the spot.
Adaline, had felt someone touching her grass. She hissed loudly to attract Willy's attention.
Will did not hear her. He was lost in his own little world. There was a deadpan expression on his face as he continued to eat grass.
Roots coiled around his shoulders and shook him.
"What? What?" He was spooked but realized that it was Adaline. He ran outside.
Using her vines, she pointed at a specific location.
"Someone's here?"
Adaline nodded.
Will took out his gun and dragon armor.
He climbed up some stone stairs that he crafted, he observed the area but found nothing.
"Are you sure you saw someone?" Will asked.
Adaline nodded.
"He must be far away. Could it be Jim? Or maybe a scout of his."
If it had something to do with Jim he needed to take care of that problem. It would be troublesome if they knew where he lived.
"Want to come?"
Adaline shook her head.
"Stay here. I'll be back."
He jumped off the wall and landed on the grass. He ran to the location that Adaline pointed.
A few minutes of running, he saw something on the ground, a shirtless man.
At first he thought that it might be a trap to lure him in, but he saw that man's status bar.
{Elf}
{40/15,000 HP}
{status: fainted, dehydrated}
"Another elf?"
He had met another elf back in Jack's store.
"What is an elf doing out here?"
Will thought of dragging him back to his base. After all Elves are lovers of nature, and Adaline is part of nature.
"Maybe he has something to do with Adaline."
Will first searched his body for weapons and such.
He found 2 empty cans, and a pair of identical enchanted swords.
He poked the blades with his finger and some information appeared in front of him and in the brown book.
{Elven blade(enchanted)}
{Damage: 200-300(100+)}
{A blade made out of metal-grass, the rarest and hardest grass grown on the elven kingdom}
{Enchanted: deflection III; can deflect any kind of projectiles back to the sender}
{Enchantment: edge III; increases the damage output of the weapon}
{Blessed: 90%+ reflexes, 25%+ on all stats boost}
Both of the swords have the same stats and enchantments.
Will was shocked, it does more damage than his magical gun.
Enchantments are obviously a thing in this world, but he didn't fully understand it until Jack told him.
Per each enchantment level, the stronger it is. Each level increases its power significantly.
Example,
{Enchantment 1 edge} increases the weapons damage output by 1.25x or 25%
{Enchantment 2 edge} increases the weapons damage output by 1.50x or 50%
{Enchantment 3 edge} increases the weapons damage output by 1.75x or 75%
Each enchantment level increases its might by 25%
This is why magical weapons and enchantments don't fuse, because it would be too powerful for this world to handle. But even so 2 people have a magical enchanted weapon, the Great Sage, and the Fat Empress.
He took the swords away from the elf and stored them neatly inside his iron chest. These weapons could basically one shot him.
He had hoped that he had brought something useful for him like seeds, but his hopes and dreams died right then. Even if Arbor brought seeds it wouldn't matter because there is no soil for them to grow. And even if he does somehow make or collect soil, the heat of the sun would dry out the plants.
Will carried Arbor on his shoulder and carried him like a sack of potatoes.
It was surprisingly easy to carry him, it was due to building strength from mining for the past month. Will might not have realized it but his body has undergone some changes in the past month. It wasn't due to some miracle drug or by taking a shortcut, it was by hard work.
Will arrived on his base and dropped Arbor inside his stone house. It provided some shade to Arbor.
Adaline did not recognize Arbor at first because of the disguise, but she immediately knew it was him. She immediately became ecstatic like a puppy who was reunited with her family.
"Adaline, bring him some water."
Adaline nodded.
Will took out some steel bars and crafted them into steel handcuffs. He cuffed his legs, and arms. Good thing he had literally dozens of chests filled with ores. Adaline absorbed some water from underground using her roots, and she made sure that it fell in Arbor's mouth.
Will wanted to take precautions especially against him. An elf with 15k HP is no joke. The most HP he's seen was a dragon with 1,000,000 HP, but that's understandable because it's a dragon. But this is an elf.
If this Elf attacks at least he will be restrained and unarmed, and if it doesn't work Will could shoot him, and he could quickly run away with Adaline.
The elf he saw before has 300 HP, which meant that this elf before him must be one of the strongest, or so he believes.
{Elf}
{269/15,000 HP}
{Status: fainted, dehydrated}
He was slowly regaining his health.
Will knows that when someone's HP drops near zero, they get weaker, slower, which makes sense since they are weakened, Will knows this from experience.
Will had no way to recover HP any other way besides lying on bed. He needs to find out how to make health potions or something like that for others like Adaline.
He tried making potions, but couldn't for some reason. He needs an ingredient called 'ajio' which is basically the only ingredient that he needs to craft any pills/potions.
He has never heard of this ingredient before, so it must be a thing from this world. It was like trying to craft potions in minecraft without using nether wart.
They both kept an eye on him at all times, especially Will who had his weapons ready. Should the elf make any sudden moves, he was not afraid to pull the trigger and blow everything up.