Many hours ago…
Grace and Arbor had just arrived at the elven kingdom. It was just a bunch of elves living together in harmony with different types of organic creatures.
Silvas came to greet them. Grace's mother was also there as well. The trees told them when they would be arriving and so they waited for them.
"I've missed you both so much. I haven't heard from you two in a while." Grace's mother hugged them both as soon as they got off Sten.
They shared a hug for a moment. But they both quickly ran to Silvas.
"Dad. We found something." Arbor showed Silvas the exotic flower.
"Where did you find it?" Silvas took the flower and held it gently as if it was more fragile than glass. He already knew about the existence of the exotic flower, but didn't know how it appeared.
"You remember that hero I mentioned? He got it from Adaline." Grace crossed her arms.
"I knew that the Adalis can produce exotic flowers, but not that young. She shouldn't even be 6 months old. Regardless, this is very good news."
"Actually… he had two… but he ate one." Arbor couldn't help but feel his heart ache, such a waste.
"Two? That seems unrealistic, even for me."
"It's true, grandfather." Grace added.
"Then how is he still alive? I know he was with you the last time you two came here." Silvas said.
"He has a weird ability… well abilities. We'll tell you later. What do you plan to do with the exotic flower?" Arbor asked.
"Well the Great Sage was the one who ate the last flower 300 years ago, and I was gonna use it on your mother, Arbor, but that time won't ever come."
Arbor felt sad when he heard that.
"I'm sure that she would've liked to give it to you, or Grace. Arbor, you already have a good constitution after all your years of training and fighting. With this flower you'll probably become the only elf with the strongest constitution."
"That seems like a good idea, dad. But I want Grace to absorb the flower instead."
"Me?" Grace pointed to herself.
"Yes, you."
"Dad, we won't see another flower for another 100 years. I can wait. We only came across this flower by luck, and we won't probably ever have this opportunity ever again. So you take it." Grace said.
"Grace, I would have agreed with you, but after the zombie appeared, I am not sure if we can wait another hundred years. Like your grandfather just said, I have a strong body because of years of countless training. But you're still young and weak. I want you to absorb the flower."
"He's right, Grace." Grace's mother added herself in this conversation. "Take it. Your protection is all that matters to us."
Silvas nodded in agreement.
"But-"
"No, buts, Grace. I am the king, and my orders are that you will absorb the flower." Silvas said jokingly but also serious.
"Fine… will it be painful? And how long will it take?"
"You'll soon find out. Come. To the forbidden grounds." Arbor led them all to a part of the forest that is restricted even to elves.
While they were on their way, Silvas asked them a question.
"What did the human want?"
"Dad?" Arbor asked not sure what he meant.
"I imagine that the human who gave you the exotic flower didn't give it to you guys for free. What did he want?"
"Not much. A bunch of herbs, a bunch of different seeds, diamonds, rubies, gold, emeralds, sapphire, information about this world, maps, and metal grass." Grace remembered everything Will said he needed.
"That's it? Looks like we got a very good deal. Joyce?"
"Yes?" Joyce is the name of Grace's mother.
"You can't enter the forbidden grounds. But can you gather 1000 different types of herbs and seeds for the human? Also a few hundred minerals as well, we have a lot. And if we have gold he can have it all. It's useless to us anyways. And we can spare a few hundred metal-grass as well."
"Of course my king. Good luck, honey." Joyce hugged her daughter and husband one more time and left.
They continued on their path until they arrived at the forbidden grounds. It was a forest underground, but it was the same exotic trees that Will had in his base.
On the very center of it all, is the exotic seed fully grown. The trees, plants, everything protected this flower from any elf, except Silvas.
"Even if you guys come here without my permission, these trees will tear you all apart." Silvas said.
"But humans have never made it this far, is all this necessary?"
"Humans aren't the only cruel ones in this world, Grace. Sometimes elves can be just as corrupted as humans. You can never know until it's too late."
Elves also desire a longer lifespan, and the exotic seed is the only one that can give them that. But common elves won't get a chance to even see the flower. Silvas chooses the elf that can absorb the exotic flower.
Grace didn't say anything about that. Not all elves are as dignified and selfless as some might think. Given the chance, they would enslave humanity.
"Okay, lie down on this water. The process is simple. You and the flower will be in this water, and your body will slowly absorb the exotic flower. The process isn't long. At most a few days." Silvas said.
"Hm." Grace dropped her stuff on the ground.
"And also… I just remembered, you need to be naked for it to work." Silvas said awkwardly.
"What?" Grace instinctively covered her chest and was embarrassed all of a sudden.
"If you have your clothes on you then the effects won't work all the way. It's like that one story of that Achilles guy, the one that the heroes of the past told." Silvas added, trying to explain himself.
"Oh, I love that story." Arbor added.
"I am not going to strip in front of my father and grandfather!"
"We've seen you naked when you were born, and also when you ran around the entire forest naked because you didn't like to wear clothes." Arbor added.
"I was a kid! I am now a… it won't happen." Grace couldn't finish her sentence properly.
"We can cover you with a small towel, but that's it." Silvas said.
"G… give me the darn towel." Grace was beet red, she felt humiliated.
Grace hid behind a rock and came out with two towels covering her two most important places. She slowly went into the water and floated, she made sure to cover herself with the towels.
"Whatever you do, don't move around too much. The key is to keep still. You can sleep if you want, your father and I will watch you all night."
"When you phrase it that way, it makes me not want to sleep."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I realized the moment I said it."
Silvas plucked the pedals of the flower and dropped them on the water. The water changed colour, it changed to a slightly purplish color.
"The process will feel weird at first, as if there's something tingling inside you. But that's normal."
"Okay. But just please turn around. It's hard to focus when you two are just standing there." Grace said, still embarrassed.
Both of the elves left the room where they could feel her presence, but not see her. Grace felt relieved all of a sudden.
"Can't we have the trees watch over her?" Asked Arbor.
"These exotic trees don't communicate or listen to us like other trees do. Their only purpose is to protect the seed at all costs, even from me. And if we plant more trees here, they'll turn exotic. It's why we need to be here in case Grace does fall asleep and drowns, or if something else goes wrong." Silvas said.
"I see."
"So… tell me about this hero kid. What is he like exactly?"
"I know a few things about him, and I think he's trustworthy. Adaline seems overly fond of him."
"Must feel terrible to see the Adalis being taken from you like that, as if your own child had eloped." Silvas jokingly said.
"It did feel bad at first. But now I know that she's in good hands. That still won't stop me from visiting her."
"What about Grace? She doesn't like humans much."
"I don't know. What do you think about Will, Grace?"
"Meh." Grace responded.
"Oh wow, that's an improvement." Silvas chucked a bit.
"She's teaching him to speak elven tongue."
"Oh, really? Never would've guessed that. How about his abilities? I want to know more about this hero, and why he hasn't been summoned properly like the other 99 heroes."
They started talking and chatting to pass the time.
That's what they've been doing all this time.
Will woke up. Did all of his daily chores, breeded camels, ate meat and fruits, enchanted his armor, made more exotic potions, cut down trees, and grew more fruits. It was the same every day.
The amount of exotic flowers adaline produced was 2, 3 if he was lucky. With her new exotic transformation he thought that maybe she would've produced more flowers, but it seemed that not everything would go his way. Either way he was satisfied seeing his HP rising slowly each day.
{HP: 800/800}
He was already down in the mines, beside him was Adaline. She used her exotic form to make it brighter, and used her roots to cut through stone and granite. It was as if she became a powerful mining tool.
"Remember, Adaline, whatever you mine you place it inside the chests." Will had placed over dozens of chests all around. He planned to mine a lot to find diamonds and gold.
*Screech*
Will could still hear the scorpions screeching and clawing their way. He frowned. The granite he used to block the hole in the cave was giving in. The scorpions on the other side were growing restless, and were trying to break down the granite wall he made.
"It won't be good if those things make it to the surface."
Will took down his guns. Next, he also took out his pistol and added a new type of ammo.
{Torch bullets}
Like it's name suggests, it's a bullet but a torch as well. He could shoot these in the dark and a torch would then be placed there. It was convenient to have when venturing dark caves.
He shot those torch bullets everywhere to give him a better view of the cave. He kept the enchanted bullets in his pocket, just in case.
"HISSS!"
Adaline hissed at the scorpions, she could feel them through the vibrations.
"Are you ready?" Will said while loading his gun.
Adaline didn't say anything, but was eager to fight. Maybe it's because she wanted to test out her exotic form.
"Tear that wall down."
Adaline used her roots and smashed the wall to pieces.
No sooner than later, a swarm of scorpions started to escape. Some even climbed the walls and were surrounding the area.
Adaline used her roots as whips and tore them to pieces.
Will used his assault rifle and aimed for their heads. No matter how much HP one had, a shot to the heart or head will result in an instant death.
Will was scared but kept shooting. After a while he got used to it. Monsters like these scare him especially in such a dark area. Probably his greatest fear are monsters bigger than him in size, not just dragons. Even back then he has a deep fear of whales, giant squids, mostly sea monsters.
But seeing them all die in an instant, made him feel relieved.
After what felt like an eternity, the scorpions finally stopped attacking.
"Man, that was scary. But satisfying to say the least." Will wiped the sweat off his forehead.
*SCREECH*
A horrible, loud screech shook the cave. It came from the hole where the scorpions were coming from.
Sudden earthquakes vibrated the area, like the t-rex in the Jurassic park movie. It got closer, louder.
Will instinctively took a few steps back and aimed for the hole. He covered his chest with the exotic shield he crafted. The exotic shield had more defense and durability than a steel shield.
A giant, pointy tail, like a scorpion, but 5 times the size of the other scorpions, shot out with an amazing force and speed directly at Will.
Will didn't even see it coming, he was pushed back by the tail, all he felt was as if a powerful invisible force pushed him back. It took him a second to see a giant tail attack him.
{Exotic shield}
{Durability 1799/2000}
{Exotic chest piece}
{Durability 1111/1200}
{HP: 799/800}
It might seem that he didn't suffer much, but his shield and exotic armor just took a hit. If his armor breaks then his vulnerable body will be defenseless.
The tail retracted fast and stabbed Adaline instead.
Adaline reacted quickly and coiled her roots around the tail, and used her head to collide with the tail. For some reason her head is very strong, which is how she's able to tear down trees with ease while running at full speed.
Adaline pulled the scorpion's tail and made the scorpion reveal itself.
Not surprisingly it was a giant scorpion, bigger than 15 feet. It was very dark. It's claws were also big enough to cover it's head.
Will saw that giant scorpion's status.
{Scorpion Queen}
{HP: 30000/30000}
"Attack!" Will shouted and began shooting at the scorpion using his assault rifle.
The scorpion used her claws to protect her head.
{HP: 29999/30000}
Will kept shooting until he saw that thing drew its last breath.
The scorpion queen wanted to pull her tail, but Adaline had it wrapped tightly with her roots, and was even beating her in a contest of strength, like a tug-of-war was happening between them.
*SCREECH*
The scorpion queen ran towards Adaline and used her giant claws instead to attack.
Adaline used even more of her roots and made a shield around her as she continued to push back. She's not gonna let her use her tail to attack.
Their powers were shaking the cave violently. If they continued it'll be a matter of time before they were all buried alive.
While they were doing that, Will was thinking up a plan to kill the queen. He grabbed a bunch of granite and stone he had in his chest. Next, he placed the enchanted bullets inside his pistol as quickly as he could.
"Hey!"
The scorpion queen saw a giant boulder flying directly at her face. She blocked it, but more and more boulders kept coming. The queen had no choice but to block the barrage of boulders hurtling towards her.
This was Will's doing. He grabbed all the stone he could carry, used his portable crafting table to craft all the boulders he could, and threw them at the scorpion queen. He got this idea after using the boulder to kill the goblins back in the cave. The boulders when he crafts them are small, but when they leave his hand, they turn into massive boulders.
"Adaline, keep pulling her tail until it comes off! Use all your strength!"
Adaline did as he said, and pulled the tail as hard as she could.
The scorpion queen didn't expect this, and her tail came off clean off her back. The pain it caused her made her go in an angry rampage and destroyed everything using her giant body.
Once the scorpion queen's claws were not protecting her face, Will was already aiming at her head.
"Die."
He managed to shoot her right in the head using the enchanted bullets. The scorpion queen's body fell on the floor.
{Scorpion Queen}
{HP: 0/30000}
Will let out a sigh of relief.
"It doesn't matter how much HP one has, unless if they're immortal, a single shot to the head is all it takes."
The cave stopped shaking violently. Adaline cheered and made her small victory dance, which is just running around the cave like a happy dog.
Will took out the enchanted bullets out of his pistol and shot it right at the cave. He wanted to see if there were any more scorpions to kill.
The cave leads to a long tunnel. Right at the end, there were scorpions indeed, but very small compared to the other's size. They saw Will and tried to stab him using their tails.
Will shot all the scorpions. Someday they would grow up as big as their parents.
"Nothing else here. But this is a nice cave. Maybe I could plant the exotic trees and exotic flower trees here, right after I make a few changes here." Will looked at the save and nodded his head. He was half disappointed that there wasn't a gold chest, or items in here, but it's real life, not a game where they would reward the player an item at the end.
"Adaline, let's take a break. I'll give you more goblin... "
He saw Adaline eating the corpses of the scorpions and the scorpion queen with delight.
"SPIT IT OUT! THOSE ARE POISONOUS!" Will said, but Adaline looked at him confused.
Will checked her status and was fine. She hadn't been poisoned yet.
"Don't eat those. Their tails are very poisonous."
Adaline dropped her head down as if she was sad.
Will knew why she's sad, because all she's been eating are goblin parts. He knows better than anyone that eating the same thing for too long can make anyone go insane.
"Okay, eat it, but don't eat the tails. Just be careful, okay?"
Adaline nodded and continued eating. Another exotic flower came out of her behind.
Will picked it up, but he also picked up something else.
{Exotic seed}
Will smiled. He had finally gotten another exotic seed. There was a low chance of getting a seed from Adaline, and today is the day he finally got another one.
"Looks like we'll be busy for the next few days, Adaline. At least until we find a few diamonds and go off to trade in another village."
Adaline continued eating, not paying attention to him.
While she ate, Will began building a place to grow his exotic seed and exotic trees. The scorpion cave was the perfect place to use.
"This was totally worth the wait."
Meanwhile…
In another village, were this family inside a small house.
There was a pregnant mother cooking, while her husband helped her out. Behind them was their daughter, reading a book silently in the other room.
"Ow!" The mother felt a sudden pain in her stomach.
"Not again." The father carried his wife and laid her on the couch.
"It's okay, just a mild cramp."
"I told you that you should rest. Leave the cooking, cleaning, everything to me."
The daughter was looking at her mother, she didn't know what to do. She ran to the kitchen to fetch her some warm water and a towel. She tried to help but had no idea how. She is only 8 years old.
The little girl is cute, big round eyes, white soft skin, long brown hair in pigtails. She was even wearing brown common clothes to fit her hair color. She looked as cute as a doll in the eyes of many.
"Not happening. The last time you cooked something, the food came out like something out of a horror storyyyyy." The mother experienced another cramp.
"I'll get you something for the pain." The father went to the cabinets, but there wasn't anything there to help his wife.
"Did you forget to buy the potions?"
"I forgot to buy the potions." The husband scratched his head.
"Just take to the bed. I don't think this baby likes the couch too much."
"I will."
"Mommy, I'll go to the potion store. I want to help mommy too." Their daughter said earnestly.
"No, honey, it's toooooooo." The mother once again experienced a cramp.
"Kat, go to the potion store and get more potions for the pain. Tell John that I'll pay him back later." His dad said as he carried his wife gently to their bedroom.
"Hm." Kat nodded her head once and ran off to the potion store which was right around the corner.
The village they were in was ordinary and safe. All of the villagers living there were doing well, and were happy to live there.
As Kat ran hastily, she bumped into this man wearing a camo cloak.
"Excuse me. Sorry." Kat continued running to the store and made it.
The camo cloaked individual saw Kat, and followed her to the store. He stood right behind her on the counter.
"John!" Kat said loudly.
"Kat, nice to see ya, kiddo." It was a plump, old man with a grey beard, thick brows, and smoked a pipe. He was a little shorter than the average man.
"My mommy is hurt." Kat said.
"Ah, yes. Pain nullification potions. I have them right here…" John turned around to look for the potion Kat needed. Her father had come a few times to his store to buy potions for his wife, so he knew exactly what she needed. They were also good friends as well.
The camo cloaked individual grabbed the girl's arm tightly, and they both disappeared from that spot, as if they had teleported.
"Here ya go… where did you go, Kat?" John looked around and didn't see the little girl anymore.