{Animal cage}
{A portable animal cage used to trap monsters. It does not work on monsters bigger than 10 ft}
Will unlocked this crafting method after he tamed Adaline. He has never used it on her, but has been planning on using it someday.
He had planned to trap animals and breed them together like in Minecraft, that will secure his food problem at the very least. Depending on the animal he breeds they could have many uses for him fit for his own survival.
Now that he has camels eating in front of his base, now was the perfect opportunity to trap them and breed them. Can one even eat camels? Yes, they can, it's even a delicacy in some parts of the world.
Will grabbed as many steel bars he had and made 10 portable cages. It's better to come prepared with more animal cages in case things don't go as planned. After suffering because he came to these lands unprepared, he learned his lesson and was more prepared now. And also he had a lot of ores to spare.
"Adaline, come. I need your help." Will decided to have Adaline help him as well.
Adaline got up and ran towards him. Arbor was left sitting there.
They both walked slowly towards the camels.
"Adaline, the moment they run away, you pin them down but don't stab them. Understand?" Will said very seriously, he has never been more serious in his life. It would be terrible if the camels died or ran away.
Adaline nodded.
Will had no idea how these cages worked.
"Do I throw them like they are pokeballs? Seems logical."
Will grabbed one of the cages and threw it at one of the camels. The next that happened the cage grew exactly to the camel's height and trapped the camel inside a steel cage. It all happened so fast that the camel didn't see it coming.
"OH MY GOD! THAT IS AWESOME!" Will leaped in joy. The brown book glowed brightly, this meant that he had unlocked something new.
But the other camel ran away as soon as possible.
"Don't let the other one escape."
Adaline's roots coiled around the camel's feet and tied them together. Both camels screamed as they tried to escape.
Will threw the other animal cage to the camel and trapped him. Now they're both trapped in cages.
"I think I am in love." Will looked at the steel cages in his hand. It's like having pokeballs but not really. Definitely better and cooler than having a leash in minecraft or a glass cage in terraria.
Both camels tried spitting, kicking, jumping, whatever desperate attempt they could think of to escape from the cages.
"Let's see." Will touched the animal cage with his finger.
{Animal cage 1 (steel)}
{Durability 500/500}
{Currently has a (male) camel trapped}
{Say the words: "System, open cage {Insert name}" Or "System, open all cages" to release the animals from their cages.
{Animal cage 2 (steel)}
{Durability 500/500}
{Currently has a (female) camel trapped}
"Yes, a male and female camel. God really hasn't given up on me." Will cried a bit. He was worried that his bad luck streak would've continued and given him two of the same gendered camels.
Will looked into his brown book and found something new added to his book.
{Camel}
{Camels are one of the best modes of transportations used in lands that are extremely hot and dry. They can last without food or water longer than a human can}
{They like to eat grass, grains, wheats, oats, carrots, apples…}
{Camel treat(s): use this treat on two different gendered camels and they will enter into a "love mode" where they will start consummate and produce off-springs}
{Crafting method: 100x grass}
{Crafting method: 100x seeds}
{Crafting method: 100x apples}
{Crafting method:...}
Seems like to craft such treats Will needs to collect a bunch of food and craft it into those treats. He has many choices to choose from to craft these treats.
"Amazing… wait, why doesn't Adaline have anything like these treats?" Will was a bit confused. He tamed her a long time ago and hasn't gotten any other crafting materials for her.
"Is it because she's a creature not like pigs, or cows?" Will felt like that made sense. Treats are used only for animals to breed and then to eat.
"Thanks for your help." Will pat her head gently.
Adaline rubbed her head on his chest.
After a while, Will had one problem, dragging the camels inside the cages back to his base.
It says 'portable' which should mean that it's easy to carry, but there wasn't anything on these cages that told him that it was portable. It didn't even have wheels installed.
"Hmmm…" Once again he is left on his own to figure out how this system works.
The description clearly says 'portable' but it's not actually portable.
"It must be a typo, it has to be. But is it?" Will kept examining the descriptions of these cages. The camels tried spitting him through the huge space between the steel bars, but they won't go through, as if there was invisible glass added.
Will then had an idea. Do these cages shrink even if there are animals inside? Just like how his chest shrinks even if there are items stored inside it, but would the same logic apply to living things?
He took out his chest and got his steel pickaxe. He gently tapped the steel cage, contrary to his expectations, the animal cage with the camel inside did shrink.
"No… way." Will's eyes shot up. This was unbelievable.
The camel was still inside the shrunken cage. It was currently scared out of its mind, because its whole world suddenly got bigger.
"Okay, this is definitely out of pokemon, and I love it." He stood there for 5 minutes looking at this camel. This system is more broken than he thought. It was kinda cute how a live sized camel would suddenly shrink to the size of his palm.
Will took both camels inside his base with relative ease. They were both scared completely.
Will while inside his base got into thinking, now that Jim knew where his base was there was no doubt that he would send more men here. He needs to be prepared and keep building.
"First things first, meat." Will got his pickaxe and took down a huge portion of the walls with ease, it was clear that he was now adept in using a pickaxe. His plan is to build another wall beside his wall meant only for breeding animals. He did not think that this day would ever come.
Arbor knew that Heroes had superior strength so it did not surprise him. But what he doesn't know is that Will might be a hero, but he wasn't born with those special traits that Heroes possess. The strength that Will was displaying came from his system, Will can easily break through even steel walls using a stronger pickaxe.
There was a huge gap between Will now and a month ago. You would think that they were both different people. This Will is now more ripped, tanned, healthier, and confident. He had grown a lot in this short month.
Will grabbed all the stone he had and built another wall that connected to his base. It took him merely a few hours non-stop.
This time Arbor was surprised. There has never been a Hero that could build something so quick and large. It would take so much manpower, tools, money,, and many, many years to build these walls. But that logic doesn't seem to affect Will.
'Now that I think about it, these walls look new. Did he also build all this in the past month?' Thought Arbor.
Will didn't stop there. The walls that were normally 2-3 meters tall were now 10-12 meters tall. It was easy to climb a 2-3 meter wall, but now this was way harder in case there was a raid on his base. He purposefully didn't build a doorway or a gate. If someone wanted to come in or leave they either needed to dig down, climb above the 10 meter tall walls, or break through the walls.
If Jim does send more men, and he Will, he is not going to show them the way to enter it. Right now he didn't care if Arbor did see the system's powers, he needed to be sure that he can protect the base from Jim.
He also built 6 guard towers on his base, and 3 guard towers on the walls of his breeding area.
It all merely took him 8 hours to build everything. Adaline and Arbor also helped him, without them, it would've taken him more than a day to build what he just built.
They merely kept giving him all the chests that were filled with stone, all those chests were from the effort he put into his mining the past month.
Will, while in the middle of a break, something glowed brightly in his pocket. He took it out and it was the two communication stones that he took from the two scouts.
{Have you found it? Are you there yet?}
It didn't have a name, but Will could merely guess that it was Jim who messaged him. Jim thought that his scouts were being slow and haven't found it yet.
Will's face showed a hint of anger, but it disappeared soon after. The words on the stone also disappeared.
Does it seem suspicious if he doesn't answer? What can he do? If he doesn't answer Jim will definitely get suspicious. But if he does answer would JIm realize it's someone else?
Will took some ink and quill and wrote,
{Not yet}
It was a short, and simple answer. Surely this wouldn't make him sus of him, right?
{Who are you? What happened to my men?}
"Are you serious?! There's no way!" Will almost lost his balance. All he did was reply with two words and already Jim realized that it wasn't his men who responded.
On the other side of the communication stone, JIm immediately noticed something was wrong. The communication stone was on a table so he wrote on it using his other hand.
His men would usually reply to him every few hours, it's been almost 8-9 hours since they messaged him.
The sentence they use always ends with 'boss' and this time the word 'boss' wasn't written in it. Will had no way of knowing this.
And lastly, each message they send is sent using their own handwriting. The message he received was very different from before.
In conclusion, he noticed that the one who responded was someone else.
{I don't know what you mean. It's us}
{Okay, would you mind giving me your names?}
Now Will was in a very rough situation. Jim was a lot sharper than he expected.
Will stopped messaging Jim and continued building.
Jim placed down the communication stone and sighed.
"Most likely they're both dead." If both his scouts were still alive, then the one messaging him would've at least known their names.
"Carlos!" Jim yelled.
"Yes, boss?" Carlos was a middle-aged man carrying 2 pistols, and was very tall, over 6' 6'' He is one of the men who surrounded Will a month ago. Carlos lost a few fingers when Will got too trigger happy with his magical gun.
"Assemble a team as quickly as possible. We leave at sunset towards the east."
"Why?" Carlos asked.
"Just do it. And also let my sons know I want to see them."
"Yes, boss."
Soon after his two sons, Tucker and Billy entered the house.
"Dad? Something wrong?" Asked Tucker and Billy.
"Both of you need to stay here. I'm going out."
Jim said that as he brought his weapons with him.
"Where?" Asked Billy.
"My two scouts are probably dead. Most likely the one who killed them is still there. Best case scenario that the one who killed them is living in the east."
"Why would anyone want to live there?" Asked Billy.
"If I'm correct, it's because a water source does exist there. And someone else found it before us and set up a 'lil base there." Jim would've done the same. If he found a source of water in the middle of a deserted land he too would set up base nearby.
"We want to come as well." Tucker said.
"Too dangerous."
"Dad, we keep travelling back and forth to the other villages which are almost 2 weeks away. We've fought soldiers, monsters, and you've taught us how to fight and protect ourselves. If you're assembling a team, then we need to come as well."
"Fair point, but I am still in charge here. And you both are not to come."
"And also, remember the girl I mentioned earlier today? She left to the east. At least that's what people told me that's where she went." It was Billy's intention to go to the east anyways.
Billy was surprised that Grace left without saying anything. Surely he thought that they were at least friends, or that she would ask him for help.
Grace left without saying anything for a good reason, because her dad and the Adalis might be there. There was a clear conflict between the human that's with Adaline, and if they knew her connection with Adaline, there could be a fight.
"Hmmm…"
"Dad, remember what you said about taming a woman's heart? This is my chance to show it!"
"Sigh… come along, then."
"Me too?" Tucker quickly included himself.
"Yeah, without Billy or me with you, no one could control you. It might get dangerous out there. So if things go wrong, run back to the village. Promise me?" Jim asked, very worried and serious about his sons. They were not children anymore, but men. Well Tucker could still use some help.
"Sure."
"My own sons… your mother would be so proud. Let's go. Grab all the guns you can bring, water and food as well."
Meanwhile…
Will finally build it, his animal breeding place. It was just mostly stone fences in an open area. It had a lot of grass for camels to eat, and water too.
On his hand was a camel treat that he crafted.
It was easy to craft. All he needed was 100 grass, and 10 treats were crafting from it.
He crafted an iron sickle blade to cut grass, Adaline gathered all the grass she could and handed it to Will.
Will threw the cages inside the stone fences and they grew fully in size.
"System, open all cages." Will commanded. It was a neat feature that came with the cages, voice activation locks.
The cages opened to his command. And the camels like nothing began to eat and drink to their heart's content.
Will entered the fence to recollect the cages. And also, he lured both camels using the treats. They were blindly following the scent of the camel treats.
"Oh? So these treats can lure them." He kept learning something new every day
He fed both of them one treat each. Not long after both of them started to consummate.
"Bye." Will left the scene as soon as possible. Why would he want to watch two camels get intimate with one another?
He checked on how his trees were doing, and as he expected, they all grew so fast.
"Oh thank god, more wood." Will first gathered all the acorns he could get, then he chopped off the trees and collected the wood.
Arbor did not feel anything for the trees. Just like all life trees die and grow back. He wasn't too worried about the trees anyway, because Will could regrow trees in a single day.
Will planted many more acorns to have more wood.
"If there is a raid coming, I need to be prepared. I need to start crafting more."
Will got all the steel and ores he mined, and crafted a shield.
{Steel shield}
{Bullets cannot penetrate it and ricochet off}
The shield was long and fancy, it almost covered his entire body, except his feet. There is even a small hole on the side of the shield meant for melee weapons like spears. It might seem silly to use a shield with a gun, but Will didn't care, it provided him some protection.
Will didn't stop there. He crafted a ton of bullets, and extra weapons. Worse case scenario he will use the magical gun, which is almost completely destroyed.
He tried making armor specially designed for Adaline, but the system didn't allow it, or he had just not unlocked it. Which is weird because it's the crafting system, so shouldn't he be able to craft anything he desires?
Sometimes Will feels like there's more that this system isn't telling him, something that he needs to figure out on his own.
"Adaline." Will sat beside Adaline who was lazily sitting in the middle of the base.
"Someday those men are gonna come back here. They know that we are here. So we need to prepare for it."
Adaline faced Will, she suddenly felt scared.
"We could run. That seems like a logical reason. But are you still strong enough? Do you want to flee?" Will was busy building so much that he forgot running was an option.
This depends all on Adaline. She's the only one who can carry them away from this hellhole safely.
Adaline thought rationally. Run away back to the forest where she knows she's safe. After this past month she's mostly gotten over her traumatizing event. But, would that mean that running is the only thing they should do?
No matter where they go they are still gonna face dangers, either from humans, monsters, or other things. They once witnessed a live dragon being consumed in seconds. This world isn't safe at all.
Will realized this too a long time ago. But he wants to know Adaline's decision.
As for Arbor? There's no way he can communicate with him.
Adaline stood up and stomped her foot on the ground heavily.
"Does that mean you want to stay?" Asked Will to be sure.
Adaline nodded. She wanted to make a stand. It would be a lie to say if she wasn't terrified right now. She just did a better job right now to hide it.
"Okay. I agree as well."
Will especially will not let this base go to JIm, who hurt Adaline. He worked too hard, and suffered too much to let someone else take his base that he build.
There is nothing else that pleases a gamer more than grinding, and then seeing the results after endless hours of grinding. Imagine all that hard work he did the past month were to be taken away all of a sudden? Would all of this been in vain if he were to give up?
Will does not want to go back to his old ways of being lazy anymore. He wants to live his life to the fullest. That's the promise he made to himself, and his family who are back on his home world.
There is nothing that pisses him off more than someone stealing his hard earned work. Sadly, he's put more hard work into this base than any other minecraft or Terraria world he played in.
"Then again I might be wrong about this, hopefully. Have a good night." Will entered his house and slept like a log after taking a shower.
Adaline kept expanding her grass as far as she could. The further her grass was the more likely someone will touch it, and the sooner she'll notice them coming
Not too far away, Grace kept walking without rest. She was tired and thirsty. Her water ran out hours ago. The reason she still kept going is because the sun was down, so the heat didn't affect her. If she were to rest right now and way until day it would tire her out.
At least she plans to rest until she arrives at the water source.
Arbor, on the other hand, couldn't sleep well for some reason. He climbed the stairs up to the walls. He could see the entire desert from up there.
Arbor kept staring outside. Something about those men bothered him. Adaline seemed deeply afraid of them. He wondered something, was he a bad father?
"I left Grace for many years to go venture out and never checked on her personally, I let the trees tell me about her. I failed to fully gain the Adalis… Adaline's affection. I came here to bring her back, but is that even the right choice? If I divide her from the human hero, it would be cruel of me. But I don't want to let her go."
Arbor teared up a bit. He had taken care of Adaline for many years while it was still inside an egg. How he cared deeply about her. Before he knew it, he was raising a second daughter.
Arbor continued to be in deep thoughts to himself for a while before heading back inside his house.
He had tried numerous times to contact his people to let him know if Grace and his wife are okay. The fact that he doesn't know is driving him crazy.
Meanwhile…
It was already sundown. Jim gathered all of his men near the entrance of his village. The amount of men behind him easily exceeded 50.
His men were all equipped with pistols, some with assault rifles. They were all in better shape than most of the villagers. They were all glad that they would finally get a source of water, and all they need to do is take it from someone else.
Jim carried his pistol, inside the pistols were his bullets, but the bullets all had flamelike, indigo colors, the bullets were obviously enchanted.
A month ago when they wanted to kidnap Adaline, Jim one made a giant hole on Adaline's shoulder when he shot her, there was no way an ordinary weapon could do that. The only logical reason that made sense is that he had shot her using an enchanted or magical weapon.
The amount of bullets he had was limited, only 11 shots remained. He found these bullets from a merchant he killed 2 years ago. Jim and many of the men behind him have all done illegal stuff, because they had no other choice.
"Let's move." Jim led the man along with his two sons. They all went on foot because none of them had a mount.
Like Will had predicted, there was going to be a raid, and it would reach his base soon.