The world was a little bit more at peace knowing that the child killers had been killed. Many had thanked the King, and the hero Josh for some reason for capturing the noble.
Jasmine did not want to spend too much time in the kingdom. After the Great Sage promoted her to 3-stripes, gave her a reward, she left. Unknown to her, someone was tailing her secretly.
Will finished building 2 pools, both of the pools were in a round shape instead of the square shaped pools. Will thought that this shape made the pools seem nicer. One of the pools was smaller and was connected with the other pool.
For lights, Will successfully placed some night flowers in the walls on the pool to light it up.
"Man, I am good." Will was starting to see that his building skills are progressing. Compared to the first time he built a small house, he is now an expert.
"Weee!" Rias dived into the pool and made a little splash.
"..." Will.
Rias began swimming around the pool without a care in the world.
"Aw man, this feels nice. Could you perhaps build a-"
"No!" Will said immediately.
"But I didn't even ask-"
"Don't care."
Will left to go mining once more. He needs to find cobalt so he keeps mining deeper and deeper.
"What about the exotic seed?" Will almost forgot about that. When no one was looking, he teleported to his secret hideout.
The exotic seed changed. It was as if it was turning itself on and off repeatedly.
Will got curious and looked a little closer.
"What does this mean?" Will touched the exotic flower seed, and the flower fell on the ground.
"Crap! Did I kill it?!" Will was scared, this exotic seed was rare and it was one of the few methods he used to increase his HP.
{Exotic flower}
{Exotic seed}
"Thank goodness." Will sighed in relief. He thought he killed the seed, but in reality he got another exotic flower.
Will made sure to put another potion-making stand inside this secret place, so the elves would not find him coming out of nowhere.
{HP: 1000/1000}
"Yes!"
Will celebrated a bit. His HP had gone over 1000. It's a huge leap compared to his measly 50 HP from the beginning.
Then his pocket glowed brightly.
{Hello, Will. I am done.}
{Jasmine?} Will asked.
{Yes, it's me. You said you needed my help with something?}
Jasmine owed Will 2 favors, she needed to repay him.
{I do need your help. I want you to help me kill a cyclops and a dragon.}
{Um… a cyclops at the 3rd layer I can handle, but a dragon? I just got promoted to 3 stripes so killing a dragon is still too difficult for me.}
{I really need to kill those two. Besides I also need to test some new weapons I created.}
{Oh yeah, I forgot, you're a blacksmith like Jack.}
{Yeah, so will you help me?}
{I guess. I still need to learn to kill stronger monsters above the 3rd layer. It'll help improve my skills.}
{Great. So where do we meet?}
{Remember that village where you killed the Taker?}
{Yeah, I know where that is. Meet you there?}
{Meet me there tomorrow.}
{Sounds good. So when does the noble's execution start?}
{It just happened. Right in the middle of it, an Apex dragon attacked the kingdom, but a hero successfully killed the Apex Dragon easily.}
{An Apex… by himself?}
{Basically. Hero's are very strong, especially him.}
{JASMINE!!!} Jack messaged her.
{Jack?} Jasmine.
{Can you please tell me more about this hero?!} On the other side Jack's eyes were sparkling like stars. It's the first time he's heard of a hero that isn't Will.
{Yeah, tell us Jasmine.} Will too got curious. It's the first time he's heard of a hero appear. But since it wasn't his ex-girlfriend, he wasn't as curious as he should be.
{Okay. So here's how it went...}
Jasmine explained to them about the Hero Josh Jones.
Will shook his head, he knew who that was.
"Didn't think he'd have an ability like that. Josh Jones."
Will knew that Josh is an average man with good looks. His parents were wealthy like him. But, Will and him barely ever talked, they did exchange a few words over the years in school.
"To be able to kill an Apex dragon like that, it seems that heroes are not a joke. I don't know if I can even kill a dragon yet with my abilities." Will frowned, he was weak.
Will wasn't born with the same physical abilities as a hero, he's not faster, stronger, able to regenerate, he's just basically a normal man with a system.
Then again his system is not based on being able to deal such destruction like Josh can.
{Oh, and he took a little dragon girl as his… I don't know. He just took a little dragon girl who's on the Apex level.} Jasmine wrote down but felt awkward.
{Wow! To be able to tame an Apex dragon! Josh is so cool.} Jack wrote down.
{Jack... If you think that taming a little girl like that is cool, then we won't be friends ever again.} Will wrote down. Was he the only one who thought that that was wrong on so many levels?
{Aww…} Jack pouted. But he thought that Will was jealous because he was praising the other hero instead of him.
Will put away the communication stone and teleported away. While he was lost in his train of thought, he noticed that 2 elves were looking around his cave and found him, Arbor and Grace.
"Umm…" Will's heart skipped a beat. Did he accidentally give away the existence of the exotic seed?
"Where were you?" Asked Grace.
"Mining. I need to find cobalt and mine it." Will said with the best poker face he could, but his heart was beating fast, and he was sweating a bit.
Grace and Arbor knew that Will could teleport now after he acquired a magical item that lets him teleport.
"Are you hiding something?" Grace asked a bit seriously.
"Of course I am." Will said.
"?" Grace didn't expect such a straight answer.
"My hero abilities are too many to count. It's nothing weird if I have a few secret abilities I'm hiding."
"I don't mean that."
"So what if I am hiding something? It's certainly got nothing to do with you two. Everyone has their own secrets, especially heroes."
"That's true. But the gun you showed me, it was made from a material that is impossible to get, only my grandfather can get it."
"So what are you saying?" Will looked at her face directly, his poker face was getting better.
Grace looked at her father, and she sighed.
"Do you have an exotic seed?" She asked the question.
"Exotic seed? You mean the same seed that your grandfather is guarding? The same one that all humans are looking for? The same one that can make exotic flowers?"
"Yes, that one!"
"Wow, Grace. And I thought you were smart." Will shook his head.
"What do you mean?"
"Do you really think that I can somehow get an exotic seed? That's literally impossible. First of all the only exotic flower seed to exist is guarded heavily by the elves, and your Goddess. Wouldn't the whole forest know that I stole your exotic flower seed? And wouldn't it also know if there was another exotic flower seed to exist?"
"Um… but, your abilities, they're…"
"Grace, I know I have many abilities, but do you really think I can produce exotic flower seeds? Really? You two have been with me for some time now, surely you two would have already noticed that."
"That's…"
"And also, what the hell would be the point of me using a flower seed or an exotic flower? That's dumb! One, I cannot consume it because it'll poison me to death like last time, or two if I sell it to other people they will come for my head, and I already got attacked by them twice. So tell yourself this, Grace, why would I keep an exotic flower seed to myself!"
As Will continued to talk the louder and angrier he became.
Grace didn't answer that. They never thought about that.
"I'm going to sleep now. Try the pool." Will entered his room which he made underground and lied on his bed.
Arbor and Grace were left there.
"So… does he have it?" Asked Arbor.
Will just felt relieved that his acting played out.
"Man, they should cast me in a movie." Will laughed to himself, but he can now be at peace knowing that the two elves are no longer suspicious of him anymore.
An entire day went by and he didn't do much today, he just rested. Out of all the time he'd been here, he felt like today was his least productive day.
Will woke up to a bright light emanating from a stone.
{I'm almost there. Are you there yet?}
"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot." Will yawned as he remembered that today Jasmine promised him to hunt down powerful monsters.
{When do you arrive?} Asked Will.
{In about 2 hours.}
{I'll be there soon.}
Will only needed at most 30 minutes on Adaline to arrive at the village.
He took a quick shower, ate some food, placed his weapons and armor inside an iron chest. He also now carried some low health potions, which could come in handy.
But first, he made a powerful weapon.
{Exotic-metal-grass turret pistol: Modified: enchanted}
Will crafted another turret pistol using the metal grass the elves brought him, and also added exotic material to it.
What he wanted to test out most was the new enchantment he added.
{Enchantment: Infinite ammo V: You will never have to reload or run out bullets ever again}
{Enchantment: Piercing III}
Will needed to see just how powerful this gun is with the infinite ammo enchant. He couldn't wait to try it.
If it's worth it he thought of enchanting more items. But, in order to have powerful enchantments, he needed to craft the {Cursed power source generator} maybe that could possibly enchant magical items like his cloth of teleportation, or his magical gun that he hasn't used in a while.
"Will." Grace walked to him.
"What?" Will pretended to be annoyed and angry with her, to make her feel guilty about prying into his business.
"Sorry about that. We didn't think about it logically. There is no reason why you would keep an exotic flower or exotic seed."
"As long as we're clear." Will said.
"Where are you going?" Grace noticed that Will was ready to leave.
"Somewhere, so take care of the place while I'm gone, my sentries are on right now so you don't have to worry about a raid. Also, I'm taking Adaline with me. Where is she anyway?" Will realized that he hadn't seen Adaline much in the past few days.
"Adaline? But, that's too risky."
Will ignored her and went outside his base. The first thing he saw was Radix sitting by the wall getting some shade.
"You're still here?" Will was surprised.
"Hmm… must kill heroes." Radix was sleep talking, he's a heavy sleeper.
"Okay…"
Will looked and saw Adaline playing with the flying organic creature known as Drake.
"So, she made a friend." Will smiled. No wonder he hadn't seen her, she was probably with Drake most of the time, since she hasn't seen her kind in a while.
What Will didn't know is that Radix asked Drake to carry it back to the elven kingdom, where he can be treated.
But Adaline changed Drake's mind and now both of them think that Drake doesn't deserve their help.
"Let's go, Adaline. We're leaving." Will threw Adaline a piece of scorpion meat which she ate happily.
"Good girl!"
Will got on top of her, but Arbor stood in their path.
"What's wrong?" Will asked.
"Dad says that it's too dangerous for Adaline to go into the forest. She's not ready yet to confront humans." Grace said.
Will would have agreed with him. But, Adaline is his fastest mode of transportation, and with her new exotic form, she can protect herself. Besides, Adaline is so powerful in the forest, she probably cannot die when she faces a monster when they're surrounded by trees.
"Tell your dad that I appreciate that he's worried for her sake, but she's not afraid anymore. She is very strong." Will patted Adaline's head gently.
Grace translated to her father, and she translated back to Will.
"He says that he's been meaning to talk to you about her. He said that he feels it is safer to build a home closer to the elven kingdom."
"Build… that actually doesn't sound too bad." Will thought about it and it made sense.
His main base will always be the one in the deserted lands. But, it wouldn't hurt to make other bases in case something happened and they needed to hide or rest.
And he's been meaning to do something about using Adaline as a mount, when he thought of her more of a friend. He's been thinking about making secret tunnels where he can make railroads and minecarts to quickly arrive at certain places.
"Tell him I'll think about it when I come back. Run, girl."
Adaline ran around Arbor at full speed and they left the elves behind.
Arbor screamed at Will and Adaline but they ignored him.
"To Drake!" Arbor said.
"Dad, maybe it's fine if we let them go."
"Let them go? Adaline could get hurt!"
"She's with Will. And we both know that he cares deeply about her. He wouldn't want to harm her."
"I know that." Arbor responded, "But, you should know as well as I do that anything can happen. The zombie, Adaline being taken, finding the 100th missing hero!"
"Dad…"
"Stay here, I'm going to make sure that Adaline is fine." Arbor got on top of Drake and he flew towards Adaline.
"Arbor, take me with you…" Radix pleaded weakly, he woke up too late to ask for Arbor to give him a lift back to the elven kingdom.
Grace sighed and entered the base.
"Grace… help." Radix pleaded.
"I can't. Those things are watching us." Grace pointed at the sentry turret, there was more this time.
Will added a few more diamond and emerald turrets after he had so much to spare.
Grace didn't know how smart those sentry turrets are, but she didn't want to underestimate them. And besides, she still felt bad when Radix killed Will.
When she entered the base, she saw Rias snooping around Will's stuff.
"What are you doing?" Asked Grace.
"Snooping. There has to be something that the hero is hiding." Rias looked more like she was looking for something specifically.
"I don't think he's hiding anything." Grace said.
"Let's see, guns, more guns, metal, mining tools, ores, armor, wood, potions, clothes, food, more food, seeds. Nothing, but if I were hiding something I wouldn't leave it out in the open. Wanna help me look?"
"I don't feel comfortable anymore prying into his business."
"It's okay, he's not coming back soon." Rias kept looking and finally went down the cave.
"Ugh…" Grace followed her.
Meanwhile…
The King of Reyes was exhausted today. People didn't stop talking about the execution. And the new hero, Josh, was also getting attention.
The King liked the attention, but due to his old age, he's beginning to get tired faster.
"My King!" Josh came to him and knelt.
"Yes, Hero Josh Jones?"
"Can I have permission to go to the south?" Josh asked. Behind him, was the little loli dragon and a blonde girl. The loli had some sort of enchanted color on her neck.
"You're planning on killing monsters?"
The East is dangerous, where only the strongest monsters live. Only heroes and powerful sorcerers have dared to venture there.
"Yes, your majesty. May I have your permission? I already have my team ready."
Josh pointed at the loli, and beside the loli was another girl. This girl was young, skinny, had huge breasts, long blonde hair.
"Who is she?" The King asked.
"My King, my name is Felicia. Hero Josh Jones saved me in an alleyway when I was assaulted by bandits. I owe him my life." Felicia bowed before the king. She was just an ordinary girl with no special abilities, aside from knowing the basics of cooking.
"Oh… I guess that's fine." The King had no idea why the Hero would want to take such a useless character, but if the hero wanted to take her he couldn't see why not.
"Thank, you." They bowed once more and left the kingdom of Reyes. It's the first time Josh had seen the outside world after several months of training.
Heroes, when they are first summoned to this world, cannot leave the kingdom at first due to many reasons. Which is why they are put under strict training to get to know their abilities, weakness, capabilities, and so on.
And also, if they let unprepared heroes venture out, then they would most likely die.
"Sir, another hero has completed his training." A soldier said.
"Really? Send him in." The King commanded.
The soldier went to pick up the hero.
A young shirtless male bowed before the king. He was tanned, had very short, black hair. But he was ripped.
"Ah, Hero Bruce Man."
Man is his last name.
"King, I have a request, let me leave the kingdom."
"Any reason?"
"Yes, I have read many reports of terrible monsters and people who are terrorizing this world, Taker is just one of them. If you could, I want to bring down these people before they spread more chaos to innocent people." Bruce said.
"Indeed, spoken like a hero. But you will need to take at least one teammate with you. I cannot have a hero dying on me."
"I see. One of my hero friends, Sandra, has almost completed her training. With her and your permission, could we bring justice to those criminals?"
"Very well." The King approved.
Meanwhile...
While Will was on top of Adaline, he couldn't help but think of the heroes, more specifically his ex, Sandra.
"I wonder if we will ever meet again. If we did, how will that turn out?" He asked himself.